The soft x-ray fluorescence spectra of phosphorus compounds

In this dissertation, the valence band electronic structures of III-V phosphides BP, GaP, and InP, 3d transition-metal phosphides Fe₂P, Ni₂P, and Mn₃P₂, and II-V phosphides Zn₃P₂ and Cd₃P₂ were investigated. The soft x-ray fluorescence spectra of these phosphorus compounds were measured at beamline 8.0.1 of Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The band structures of several phosphorus compounds were carried out with a full-potential linearized augmented plane waves package, WIEN97. With the help of modem instrumentation and the advent of the new generation synchrotron light sources, soft x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy allows us to perform previously difficult experiments with high resolution in a reasonable time, and gives us information, which we could not obtain otherwise. Through this research, we found many interesting results. The normally suppressed P-L₁ spectrum was observed in resonance with the B-K spectrum, and strong resonant inelastic x-ray scattering was observed at the Ga M_2,3 edge associated with energy loss to electronic excitations from the Ga d levels. Hybridization of the Fe d states with phosphorus states permits the location of metal d bands within the valence band to be determined from P-L_2,3 spectrum. For the Zn and Cd compounds, the d bands were found to lie between two P s states. The presence of the d bands at the location of the P s states is the cause of the splitting, which is confirmed by the band structure calculations using accurate crystal structures with d bands included in the calculations.