Electronic structure of liquid alloys from photoelectron spectroscopy

Abstract

The electronic structure of liquid alloys has been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS, XPS, synchrotron radiation PES). Normal metal alloys (GaSn, BiGa and BiTl) reveal valence band density of states (DOS), qualitatively in agreement with a rigid band model. Liquid transition metal and noble metal alloys (NiBi, PdBi, AgBi and AgCuGe) exhibit band shifts with respect to the pure alloy constituents and larger core level binding energy shifts on alloying. Temperature effects within the liquid state are clearly observed in the surface compositions, the d band positions and the core level binding energies of the transition metal and normal metal alloys.