X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies of spin–orbit coupling in 5d transition metal oxides

Abstract

In order to examine the effects of strong valence band spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in 5d transition metal oxides (TMOs), we have investigated the L2 and L3 edge white-line intensities of the x-ray absorption spectra of several 5d TMOs. The white-line intensities at both edges are found to decrease monotonously with increasing 5d electron occupancy, while their ratio showed anomalous behavior for late 5d TMOs (IrO2, PtO2, and Au2O3), deviating significantly from the theoretical value of 2 expected for the case of weak SOC. This observation serves as a clear experimental indication of strong SOC effects in 5d TMOs. We also discussed how the 5d TMOs can have charge transfer effects different from their counterpart 5d elemental metals by making comparative studies. Our works demonstrate the importance of j quantum states due to strong SOC in the 5d system.