Electronic Structures of Uranium Compounds Studied by Soft X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Abstract

The electronic structures of uranium-based compounds have been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy with soft X-ray synchrotron radiation. Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy with soft X-rays has made it possible to directly observe their bulk band structures and Fermi surfaces. It has been shown that the band structures and Fermi surfaces of itinerant compounds such as UB2, UN, and UFeGa5 are quantitatively described by a band-structure calculation treating all U 5f electrons as itinerant. Furthermore, the overall electronic structures of heavy-fermion compounds such as UPd2Al3, UNi2Al3, and URu2Si2 are also explained by a band-structure calculation, although some disagreements exist, which might originate from the electron correlation effect. This suggests that the itinerant description of U 5f states is an appropriate starting point for the description of their electronic structures. The situation is similar for ferromagnetic superconductors such as UGe2, URhGe, UCoGe, and UIr, although the comp...