Electronic structure of lanthanum calcium oxoborate LaCa 4O(BO 3) 3

Abstract

Lanthanum calcium oxoborate (LaCOB) is a nonlinear optical (NLO) material that belongs to the calcium-rare-earth (R) oxoborate family, with general composition Ca 4RO(BO 3) 3 (R 3+=La, Sm, Gd, Lu, Y). X-ray photoemission, photoabsorption, and resonant fluorescence were applied to study the electronic structure of this material. High resolution photoemission measurements on the valence band (VB) electronic structure and La 3d and 4d, Ca 2p, B 1s, and O 1s core lines were used to evaluate the surface and near surface chemistry. Element specific density of unoccupied electronic states in LaCOB were probed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the La 3d (M 4,5-edge), B 1s, and O 1s (K-edges) absorption edges. Soft X-ray fluorescence was used to further examine valence band states associated with spectral differences noted in the absorption measurements. These results provide the first measurements of the electronic structure and surface chemistry of this rare-earth oxoborate.