Published February 7, 2011 | Version v1
Journal article

Photoemission study of praseodymia in its highest oxidation state: The necessity of in situ plasma treatment

  • 1. Institute of Applied and Physical Chemistry, University of Bremen, Leobener Str. NW2, D-28359 Bremen (Germany)
  • 2. Department of Physics, University of Osnabrueck, Barbarastr. 7, D-49069 Osnabrueck (Germany)
  • 3. IHP, Im Technologiepark 25, D-15236 Frankfurt (Oder) (Germany)
  • 4. Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Bremen, P.O. Box 330440, D-28334 Bremen (Germany)

Description

A cold radio frequency oxygen plasma treatment is demonstrated as a successful route to prepare clean, well-ordered, and stoichiometric PrO2 layers on silicon. High structural quality of these layers is shown by x-ray diffraction. So far unobserved spectral characteristics in Pr 3d x-ray photoelectron (XP) spectra of PrO2 are presented as a fingerprint for praseodymia in its highest oxidized state. They provide insight in the electronic ground state and the special role of praseodymia among the rare earth oxides. They also reveal that former XP studies suffered from a significant reduction at the surface.

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Chemical Physics
Journal Volume
134
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 054701-054701.7
ISSN
0021-9606
CODEN
JCPSA6

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2011 American Institute of Physics