Nickel L2,3 core energy loss studies in NiSi2

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The L2 and L3 edges in EELS spectra of 3d transition metals arise primarily from dipole excitation of the 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 electrons to unfilled 3d states. Since the initial states have narrow energy widths, the L2,3 edges reflect the conduction band density of states (DOS) with d character. By comparing the Ni L2,3 edges in NiSi2 to those in pure Ni, the bonding between Ni and Si can be studied.Experiments were carried out in an UHV HB501A STEM operating at 100 keV with a serial EELS spectrometer. The spot size and the current were estimated to be 5 Å and 0.1 nA respectively. Both the convergence and the detector angles were about 11 mrad. The spectra were recorded in steps of 0.25 eV for Ni and 0.5 eV for NiSi2. Long dwell times were necessary to achieve high signal to noise ratio in the core loss spectra and typically 5 sec per energy step was used.