A resonant photoemission study of La 4f-states in the LaMn2Si2 intermetallic compound

Abstract

The electronic structure of the ternary LaMn₂Si₂ intermetallic compound is investigated by means of valence band resonant photoemission spectroscopy at the La 4d–4f, 3d–4f, 3p–5d and Mn 2p–3d thresholds. To investigate the La 4f-states we tuned the photon energy towards the 3d–4f, 4d–4f absorption thresholds, which leads to the resonant enhancement of the photoemission intensity from the 4f-shell. The electronic structure calculations within density functional theory are found to be in good agreement with the experimental spectra and similarly demonstrate the presence of La 4f- and Mn 3d-states in these compounds.