Electronic Structure of Actinyls: Orbital Properties.

A detailed analysis is presented for the covalent character of the orbitals in the actinyls: UO22+, NpO22+, and PuO22+. Both the initial, or ground state, GS, configuration and the excited configurations where a 3d electron is excited into the open valence, nominally the 5f shell, are considered. The orbitals are determined as fully relativistic, four component Dirac-Coulomb Hartree-Fock solutions. Several measures, which go beyond the commonly used population analyses, are used to characterize the covalent character of an orbital in order to obtain reliable estimates of the covalency. Although there are differences in the covalent character of the orbitals for the initial and excited configurations of the different actinyls, there is a surprising similarity in the covalent character for all of the states considered. This is true both between the initial and excited configurations as well as between the different actinyls. The analysis emphasizes the 5f covalent character in the closed shell bonding orbitals and the open shell antibonding orbitals since the focus is on characterizing orbitals needed in a many-body treatment of the actinyl wave functions. However, estimates are also made of the participation of the actinide 6d in the covalent bonding.

Main and Satellite Features in the Ni 2p XPS of NiO.

The origin and assignment of the complex main and satellite X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) features of the cations in ionic compounds have been the subject of extensive theoretical studies using different methods. There is agreement that within a molecular orbital model, one needs to take into account different types of configurations. Specifically, those where a core electron is removed, but no other configuration changes are made and those where in addition to ionization, there are also shake or charge-transfer changes to the ionic configuration. However, there are strong disagreements about the assignment of XPS features to these configurations. The present work is directed toward resolving the origin of main and satellite features for the Ni 2p XPS of NiO based on ab initio molecular orbital wave functions (WFs) for a cluster model of NiO. A major problem in earlier ab initio XPS studies of ionic compounds has been the use of a common set of orbitals that was not able to properly describe all the ionic configurations that contribute to the full XPS spectra. This is resolved in the present work by using orbitals that are optimized for averages of the occupations of the different configurations that contribute to the XPS. The approach of using state-averaged (SA) orbitals is validated through comparisons between different averages and through use of higher order excitations in the WFs for the ionic states. It represents a major extension of our earlier work on the main and satellite features of the Fe 2p XPS of Fe2O3 and proves the reliability and the generality of the assignments of the character and origin of the different features of the XPS obtained with orbitals optimized for SAs. These molecular orbital methods permit the characterization of the ionic states in terms of the importance of shake excitations and of the coupling of ionization of 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 spin-orbit split sub shells. The work lays the foundation for definitive assignments of the character of main and satellite XPS features and points to their origin in the electronic structure of the material.

Origin of the complex main and satellite features in Fe 2p XPS of Fe2O3.

Although the origin and assignment of the complex XPS features of the cations in ionic compounds has been the subject of extensive theoretical work, agreement with experimental observations remains insufficient for unambiguous interpretation. This paper presents a rigorous ab initio treatment of the main and satellite features in the Fe 2p XPS of Fe2O3. This has been possible using a unique methodology for the selection of orbitals that are used to form the ionic wavefunctions. This orbital selection makes it possible to treat both the angular momentum coupling of the open shell core and valence electrons as well the shake excitations from the closed shell orbitals associated with the O ligands into the valence open shell orbitals associated with the Fe 3d shell. This allows the character of the ionic states in terms of the occupations of the open shell core and valence orbitals and of the contributions of 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 ionization to the XPS intensities to be determined. Our analysis gives strong evidence that many body effects are essential for a correct description of the ionic states and, in general the states cannot be described by a single configuration over the open shell orbitals. An important consequence is that the Fe 2p XPS intensity in most of the features arises from small contributions from the ionization to many, tens to hundreds, of often unresolved ionic states. While the usual understanding of the lower binding energy main and satellite features as being dominantly from 2p3/2 ionization is confirmed, this is not the case for the higher binding energy features where 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 ionization and shake excitations in the valence space mix strongly. Furthermore, we have been able to show that a very large fraction, 88%, of the total Fe 2p XPS intensity is contained in a relatively small binding energy range of ∼35 eV. This is relevant if one wants to extract the stoichiometry of Fe2O3 from Fe 2p/O 1s intensity ratios. Similar considerations about the importance of many-body effects are likely to be relevant for other ionic compounds as well.

Combined multiplet theory and experiment for the Fe 2p and 3p XPS of FeO and Fe2O3.

The Al K alpha, 1486.6 eV, based x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of Fe 2p and Fe 3p for Fe(III) in Fe2O3 and Fe(II) in FeO is compared with theoretical predictions based on ab initio wavefunctions that accurately treat the final, core-hole, multiplets. The principal objectives of this comparison are to understand the multiplet structure and to evaluate the use of both the 2p and 3p spectra in determining oxidation states. In order to properly interpret the features of these spectra and to use the XPS to provide atomistic insights as well as atomic composition, it is necessary to understand the origin of the multiplet energies and intensities. The theoretical treatment takes into account the ligand field and spin-orbit splittings, the covalent mixing of ligand and Fe 3d orbitals, and the angular momentum coupling of the open shell electrons. These effects lead to the distribution of XPS intensity into a large number of final, ionic, states that are only partly resolved with energies spread over a wide range of binding energies. For this reason, it is necessary to record the Fe 2p and 3p XPS spectra over a wide energy range, which includes all the multiplets in the theoretical treatment as well as additional shake satellites. We also evaluate the effects of differing assumptions concerning the extrinsic background subtraction, to make sure our experimental spectrum may be fairly compared to the theory. We conclude that the Fe 3p XPS provides an additional means for distinguishing Fe(III) and Fe(II) oxidation states beyond just using the Fe 2p spectrum. In particular, with the use of the Fe 3p XPS, the depth of the material probed is about 1.5 times greater than for the Fe 2p XPS. In addition, a new type of atomic many-body effect that involves excitations into orbitals that have Fe f,ℓ = 3, symmetry has been shown to be important for the Fe 3p XPS.

Covalency in Fe2O3 and FeO: Consequences for XPS satellite intensity.

The covalent character of the interaction between the metal cation and the oxygen ligands has been examined for two Fe oxides with different nominal oxidation states, Fe(II)O, and Fe(III)2O3. The covalent character is examined for the initial, ground state configuration and for the ionic states involving the removal of a shallow core, Fe 3p, and a deep core, Fe 2p, electron. The covalency is assessed based on novel theoretical analyses of wave functions for the various cases. It is found that the covalency is considerably different for different oxidation states and for different ionized and non-ionized configurations. The changes in covalency for the ions are shown to be responsible for important changes in relaxation energies for X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) spectra and in the intensity lost from main XPS peaks to shake satellites. While these consequences are not observables themselves, they are important for the interpretation of the XPS spectra, in particular, for efforts to extract stoichiometries of these iron oxides from XPS data. This is a finding likely applicable across various 3d transition metal oxide materials.

Analysis of the Fe 2p XPS for hematite α Fe2O3: Consequences of covalent bonding and orbital splittings on multiplet splittings.

The origins of the complex Fe 2p X-Ray Photoelectron Spectra (XPS) of hematite (α-Fe2O3) are analyzed and related to the character of the bonding in this compound. This analysis provides a new and novel view of the reasons for XPS binding energies (BEs) and BE shifts, which deepens the current understanding and interpretation of the physical and chemical significance of the XPS. In particular, many-body effects are considered for the initial and the final, 2p-hole configuration wavefunctions. It is shown that a one-body or one-configuration analysis is not sufficient and that the many-body, many-determinantal, and many-configurational character of the wavefunctions must be taken into account to describe and understand why the XPS intensity is spread over an extremely large number of final 2p-hole multiplets. The focus is on the consequences of angular momentum coupling of the core and valence open shell electrons, the ligand field splittings of the valence shell orbitals, and the degree of covalent mixing of the Fe(3d) electrons with the O(2p) electrons. Novel theoretical methods are used to estimate the importance of these various terms. An important consequence of covalency is a reduction in the energy separation of the multiplets. Although shake satellites are not considered explicitly, the total losses of intensity from the angular momentum multiplets to shake satellites is determined and related to the covalent character of the Fe-O interaction. The losses are found to be the same for Fe 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 ionization.

Surface core level BE shifts for CaO(100): insights into physical origins.

The relationship between the electronic structure of CaO and the binding energy, BE, shifts between surface and bulk atoms is examined and the physical origins of these shifts are established. Furthermore, the contribution of covalent mixing to the interaction, including the energetic importance, is investigated and found to be small. In particular, the small shift between surface and bulk O(1s) BEs is shown to originate from changes in the polarizable charge distribution of surface O anions. This relationship, which is relevant for the catalytic properties of CaO, follows because the BE shifts are dominated by initial state contributions and the relaxation in response to the core-ionization is similar for bulk and surface. In order to explain the dominance of initial state effects for the BE shifts, the relaxation is decomposed into atomic and extra-atomic contributions. The bonding and the core-level BE shifts have been studied using cluster models of CaO with Hartree-Fock wavefunctions. The theoretical shifts are compared with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements where both angular resolution and incident photon energy have been used to distinguish surface and bulk ionization.

Consequences of realistic embedding for the L2,3 edge XAS of α-Fe2O3.

Cluster models of condensed systems are often used to simulate the core-level spectra obtained with X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, XPS, or with X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, XAS, especially for near edge features. The main objective of this paper is to examine the dependence of the predicted L2,3 edge XAS of α-Fe2O3, an example of a high spin ionic crystal, on increasingly realistic models of the condensed system. It is shown that an FeO6 cluster model possessing the appropriate local site symmetry describes most features of the XAS and is a major improvement over the isolated Fe3+ cation. In contrast, replacing next nearest neighbor positive point charges with Sc3+, a closed shell cation of similar spatial extent to Fe3+, only marginally improves the match to experiment. This work suggests that second nearest neighbor effects are negligible. Rather, major improvements to the predicted L2,3 edge XAS likely requires additional many body effects that go beyond the present study in which the multiplets are restricted to arise from angular momentum coupling within a single open shell configuration.

Quantifying small changes in uranium oxidation states using XPS of a shallow core level.

The U 4f line is commonly used to determine uranium oxidation states with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In contrast, the XPS of the shallow core-levels of uranium are rarely recorded. Nonetheless, theory has shown that the U 5d (and 5p) multiplet structure is very sensitive to oxidation state. In this contribution we extracted the U(iv) and U(v) 5d XPS peak shapes from near stoichiometric and oxidized UO2 single crystal samples, respectively, where the oxidation state of U was constrained by fitting the 4f line. The empirically extracted 5d spectra were similar to the theoretically determined multiplet structures and were used, along with the relatively simple U(vi) component that was constrained by theory, to determine the oxidation states of UO2+x samples. The results showed a very strong correlation between oxidation states determined by the 5d and 4f line and suggested that the 5d might be more sensitive to minor amounts of oxidation than the 4f. Limitations of the methodology, as well as advantages of using the 5d relative to the 4f line are discussed.

The effect of symmetry on the U L3 NEXAFS of octahedral coordinated uranium(vi).

We describe a detailed theoretical analysis of how distortions from ideal cubic or Oh symmetry to tetrahedral, D4h, symmetry affect the shape, in particular the width, of the U L3-edge NEXAFS for U(vi) in octahedral coordination. The full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) of the L3-edge white line decreases with increasing distortion from Oh symmetry. In particular, the FWHM of the white line narrows whether the tetragonal distortion is to compression or to extension. The origin of this decrease in the FWHM is analyzed in terms of the electronic structure of the excited levels arising from the unoccupied U(6d). The relative importance of ligand field and of spin-orbit effects is examined, where the dominant role of ligand field effects is established. Especially at higher distortions, the ligand splittings decrease rapidly and lead to an accelerated, quadratic decrease in the FWHM with increasing distortion. This is related to the increase of covalent character in the appropriate component of the Oh derived eg orbitals. Our ab initio theory uses relativistic wavefunctions for cluster models of the structures; empirical or semi-empirical parameters were not used to adjust prediction to experiment. A major advantage is that it provides a transparent approach for determining how the character and extent of the covalent mixing of the relevant U and O orbitals affect the U L3-edge white line.

Covalent bonding in heavy metal oxides.

Novel theoretical methods were used to quantify the magnitude and the energetic contributions of 4f/5f-O2p and 5d/6d-O2p interactions to covalent bonding in lanthanide and actinide oxides. Although many analyses have neglected the involvement of the frontier d orbitals, the present study shows that f and d covalencies are of comparable importance. Two trends are identified. As is expected, the covalent mixing is larger when the nominal oxidation state is higher. More subtly, the importance of the nf covalent mixing decreases sharply relative to (n + 1)d as the nf occupation increases. Atomic properties of the metal cations that drive these trends are identified.

Analysis of X-ray adsorption edges: L2,3 edge of FeCl4.

We describe a detailed analysis of the features of the X-ray adsorption spectra at the Fe L2,3 edge of FeCl4-. The objective of this analysis is to explain the origin of the complex features in relation to properties of the wavefunctions, especially for the excited states. These properties include spin-orbit and ligand field splittings where a novel aspect of the dipole selection rules is applied to understand the influence of these splittings on the spectra. We also explicitly take account of the intermediate coupling of the open core and valence shell electrons. Our analysis also includes comparison of theory and experiment for the Fe L2,3 edge and comparison of theoretical predictions for the Fe3+ cation and FeCl4-. The electronic structure is obtained from theoretical wavefunctions for the ground and excited states.

Surface core-level binding energy shifts for MgO(100).

Theoretical and experimental results for the surface core-level binding energy, BE, shifts, SCLS, for MgO(100) are presented and the anomalous O(1s) SCLS is interpreted in terms of the surface electronic structure. While the Mg(2p) surface BE shifts to a higher value than bulk by ≈1 eV as expected from the different surface and bulk Madelung potentials, the O(1s) SCLS is almost 0 rather than ≈-1 eV, expected from the Madelung potentials. The distortion of the surface atoms from the spherical symmetry of the bulk Mg and O atoms is examined by a novel theoretical procedure. The anomalous O SCLS is shown to arise from the increase of the effective size of surface O anions.

Theoretical modeling of the uranium 4f XPS for U(VI) and U(IV) oxides.

A rigorous study is presented of the physical processes related to X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy, XPS, in the 4f level of U oxides, which, as well as being of physical interest in themselves, are representative of XPS in heavy metal oxides. In particular, we present compelling evidence for a new view of the screening of core-holes that extends prior understandings. Our analysis of the screening focuses on the covalent mixing of high lying U and O orbitals as opposed to the, more common, use of orbitals that are nominally pure U or pure O. It is shown that this covalent mixing is quite different for the initial and final, core-hole, configurations and that this difference is directly related to the XPS satellite intensity. Furthermore, we show that the high-lying U d orbitals as well as the U(5f) orbital may both contribute to the core-hole screening, in contrast with previous work that has only considered screening through the U(5f) shell. The role of modifying the U-O interaction by changing the U-O distance has been investigated and an unexpected correlation between U-O distance and XPS satellite intensity has been discovered. The role of flourite and octahedral crystal structures for U(IV) oxides has been examined and relationships established between XPS features and the covalent interactions in the different structures. The physical views of XPS satellites as arising from shake processes or as arising from ligand to metal charge transfers are contrasted; our analysis provides strong support that shake processes give a more fundamental physical understanding than charge transfer. Our theoretical studies are based on rigorous, strictly ab initio determinations of the electronic structure of embedded cluster models of U oxides with formal U(VI) and U(IV) oxidation states. Our results provide a foundation that makes it possible to establish quantitative relationships between features of the XPS spectra and materials properties.