Ce 4f electronic states of CeO1−xFxBiS2 studied by soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy

We use soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SXPES) to investigate Ce 4f electronic states of a new BiS2 layered superconductor CeO1-xFxBiS2, for polycrystalline and single-crystal samples. The Ce 3d spectrum of the single crystal of nominal composition x = 0.7 has no f(0) component and the spectral shape closely resembles the ones observed for Ce trivalent insulating compounds, strongly implying that the CeO layer is still in an insulating state even after the F doping. The Ce 3d-4f resonant SXPES for both polycrystalline and single-crystal samples shows that the prominent peak is located around 1 eV below the Fermi level (E-F) with negligible spectral intensity at EF. The F-concentration dependence of the valence band spectra for single crystals shows the increases of the degeneracy in energy levels and of the interaction between Ce 4f and S 3p states. These results give insight into the nature of the CeO1-xFx layer and the microscopic coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity in CeO1-xFxBiS2.