Electronic states of EuCu2Ge2 and EuCu2Si2 studied by soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy

Abstract

We have carried out angle-integrated photoemission spectroscopy (AIPES) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments using soft x rays on single crystals of ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ grown by the Bridgman method to investigate their electronic structures. The AIPES results showed that the Eu ions in ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ are in a divalent state and a nearly trivalent state, respectively, in accordance with the previously reported magnetic properties. The three-dimensional band structures and shapes of the Fermi surfaces of ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ were studied by ARPES measurements. We found that the band structures near the Fermi level and Fermi surfaces of ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ are very different from each other and are well reproduced by the band structure calculations based on density-functional theory for ${\mathrm{SrCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{YCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$. This suggests that a charge transfer from the localized $4f$ states into the valence bands is responsible for the difference in the electronic states between ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{EuCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$.