Dysprosium compounds studied by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and high-resolution X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy

Abstract

A set of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) studies focusing on the 2 p 64 f n → 2 p 54 f n 5 d 1(2 p 54 f n+1 5 d 0) → 2 p 63 d 94 f n 5 d 1(2 p 63 d 94 f n+1 5 d 0) channel of dysprosium in Dy metal, Dy 2O 3, DyNi 3 and Dy 25Fe 18 compounds have been carried out. Data showed with high statistics and resolution, the different delocalization degree of the 5 d band of dysprosium in these compounds, e.g., decreasing from Dy metal to DyNi 3, Dy 25Fe 18 and to dysprosium oxide, in agreement with the high-resolution XANES (HRXANES) spectra. Band structure calculations performed on Dy metal and Dy 2O 3 confirm both RIXS and HRXANES results in the increasing delocalization of the dysprosium 5 d band in Dy metal with respect to Dy 2O 3. The 5 d orbital occupancies of DyNi 3 and Dy 25Fe 18 alloys have been also studied by comparison of the HRXANES white line (WL) area with the behavior of the final states energy position in RIXS spectra and we show that DyNi 3 has a higher 5 d orbital occupancy than Dy 25Fe 18.