Interfacial electronic charge transfer and density of states in short period Cu/Cr multilayers

Abstract

Nanometer period metallic multilayers are ideal structures to investigate electronic phenomena at interfaces between metal films since interfacial atoms comprise a large atomic fraction of the samples. The Cu/Cr binary pair is especially suited to study the interfaces in metals since these elements are mutually insoluble, thus eliminating mixing effects and compound formation and the lattice mismatch is very small. This allows the fabrication of high structural quality Cu/Cr multilayers that have a structure which can be approximated in calculations based on idealized atomic arrangements. The electronic structure of the Cu and the Cr layers in several samples of thin Cu/Cr multilayers were studied using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Total electron yield was measured and used to study the white lines at the Cu L{sub 2} and L{sub 3} absorption edges. The white lines at the Cu absorption edges are strongly related to the unoccupied d-orbitals and are used to calculate the amount of charge transfer between the Cr and Cu atoms in interfaces. Analysis of the Cu white lines show a charge transfer of 0.026 electrons/interfacial Cu atom to the interfacial Cr atoms. In the Cu XAS spectra we also observe a van Hove singularity between the L{sub 2}more » and L{sub 3} absorption edges as expected from the structural analysis. The absorption spectra are compared to partial density of states obtained from a full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital calculation. The calculations support the presence of charge transfer and indicate that it is localized to the first two interfacial layers in both Cu and Cr.« less