Electronic structure of the intermediate-valence compound EuNi2P2 studied by soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy

Abstract

We carried out angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) experiments using soft x rays to investigate the electronic structure of the intermediate-valence compound ${\mathrm{EuNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$. Both the ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ and ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}$ components arising from the $4{f}^{6}$ and $4{f}^{5}$ final states were observed in the valence spectra, directly confirming an intermediate-valence character of Eu ions. The three-dimensional band structure was studied by ARPES measurements, and the ARPES results were compared with calculations based on the density-functional theory for the non-4$f$ reference compounds ${\mathrm{SrNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{YNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$. We found that the ARPES spectra up to just below the Fermi level are better reproduced by the calculation of ${\mathrm{SrNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ rather than that of ${\mathrm{YNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$. The heavy-fermion bands in ${\mathrm{EuNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ are thus considered to be formed through the hybridization between the dispersive valence bands, which resemble those for ${\mathrm{SrNi}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$, and the ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ components located at the very vicinity of the Fermi level.