Sulfur L{sub 2,3} soft-x-ray fluorescence of CdS and ZnS

Abstract

The II-VI sulfur compounds CdS and ZnS have important electro-optics applications. In addition, they have well characterized and relatively simple structures so that they are good candidates for theoretical model development in solid-state physics. Some experimental results on density of states have been reported, mostly determined from photoemission measurements, and theoretical calculations are available for both materials. Nevertheless the electronic properties of these elements are still not completely understood. It has been established that the d-bands, derived from Cd or Zn, lie in a subband gap between a lower valence band (LVB) derived from the S 3s orbital and an upper valence band (UVB) derived from the 3p states of S and the 4(3)s states of Cd(Zn). The locations of these bands within the gap disagree with the best available calculations, however. The principal problem is that experimental photoemission measurements locate the d-bands about 2 eV lower in the band gap than the best available calculations. Some authors argue that the hole in the d-band in the final state of the photoemission process increases the binding of the d-electrons. In any case, band gaps, band widths and the precise location of d-bands are important parameters for comparing experiment and theory, and no current calculations give good agreement with all of these parameters. Moreover, photoemission data does not adequately define all of these experimental parameters, because the d-state photoemission dominates that from s and p states and sample charging effects can modify the energy of emitted electrons. The authors report photon excited soft x-ray fluorescence (SXF) S L{sub 2,3} spectra from CdS and ZnS. Using excitation between the L{sub 2} and L{sub 3} thresholds, the L{sub 2} spectrum is suppressed, which permits the authors to accurately determine features of the UVB and LVB as well as the placement of the Cd(Zn) d-bands between the UVB and LVB.