The impact of the near-surface region on the interpretation of x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) exhibit a broad spectrum of electronic, magnetic, and optical properties, making them intriguing materials for various technological applications. Soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is widely used to study TMOs, shedding light on their chemical state, electronic structure, orbital polarization, element-specific magnetism, and more. Different XAS acquisition modes feature different information depth regimes in the sample. Here, we employ two XAS acquisition modes, having surface-sensitive versus bulk probing depths, on the prototypical TMO SrVO3. We illustrate and elucidate a strong apparent discrepancy between the different modes, emphasizing the impact of the near-surface region on the interpretation of XAS data. These findings highlight the importance of the acquisition mode selection in XAS analysis. Moreover, the results highlight the role of the near-surface region not only in the characterization of TMOs, but also in the design of future nanoscale oxide electronics.

References in corpus (7)

• Nanometer scale electronic reconstruction at the interface between LaVO3 and LaVO4
• Tuning the metal-insulator transition in d^1 and d^2 perovskites by epitaxial strain: a first principles-based study
• Stoichiometry Dependence of Potential Screening at La${}_{(1-\delta )}$Al${}_{(1+\delta )}$O${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ Interfaces
• Soft x-ray absorption of thin films detected using substrate luminescence: A performance analysis
• Bandwidth Control and Symmetry Breaking in a Mott-Hubbard Correlated Metal
• Toward Functionalized Ultrathin Oxide Films: the Impact of Surface Apical Oxygen
• Thickness and temperature dependence of the atomic-scale structure of SrRuO${}_3$ thin films

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Charge gain via solid-state gating of an oxide Mott system
• Atomic Origins of Magnetic Anisotropy in Ru-substituted Manganite Films