Electronic structure modification in Fe substituted β-Ga2O3 from resonant photoemission and soft x-ray absotption spectroscopies

Oriented thin films of β-(Ga1-xFex)2O3 have been deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on c-Al2O3 and GaN substrates. The itinerant character of Fe 3d states forming the top of the valence band (VB) of Fe substituted of β-Ga2O3 thin films has been determined from resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES). Further, admixture of itinerant and localized character of these Fe 3d sates is obtained for larger binding energies i.e deeper of VB. The bottom of the conduction band (CB) for β-(Ga1-xFex)2O3 is also found to be strongly hybridized states involving Fe 3d and O 2p states as compared to that of Ga 4s in pristine β-Ga2O3. This suggests that β-Ga2O3 transforms from band like system to a charge transfer system with Fe substitution. Furthermore, the bandgap red shits with Fe composition, which has been found to be primarily related to the shift of the CB edge.

Tellurium and Selenium Mineralogy of Gold Deposits in Northern Fennoscandia

Mineralization of Te and Se was found in gold deposits and uranium occurrences, located in the Paleoproterozoic greenstone belts in Northern Fennoscandia. These deposits are of different genesis, but all of them formed at the late stages of the Svecofennian orogeny, and they have common geochemical association of metals Au, Cu, Co, U, Bi, Te, and Se. The prevalentTe minerals are Ni and Fe tellurides melonite and frohbergite, and Pb telluride altaite. Bismuth tellurides were detected in many deposits in the region, but usually not more than in two–three grains. The main selenide in the studied deposits is clausthalite. The most diversified selenium mineralization (clausthalite, klockmannite, kawazulite, skippenite, poubaite) was discovered in the deposits, located in the Russian part of the Salla-Kuolajarvi belt. Consecutive change of sulfides by tellurides, then by selenotellurides and later by selenides, indicates increase of selenium fugacity, fSe2, in relation to fTe2 and to fS2in the mineralizing fluids. Gold-, selenium-, and tellutium-rich fluids are potentially linked with the post-Svecofennian thermal event and intrusion of post-orogenic granites (1.79–1.75 Ga) in the Salla-Kuolajarvi and Perapohja belts. Study of fluid inclusions in quartz from the deposits in the Salla-Kuolajarvi belt showed that the fluids were high-temperature (240–>300 °C) with high salinity (up to 26% NaCl-eq.). Composition of all studied selenotellurides, kawazulite-skippenite, and poubaite varies significantly in Se/Te ratio and in Pb content. Skippenite and kawazulite show the full range of Se-Te isomorphism. Ni-Co and Co-Fe substitution plays an important role in melonite and mattagamite: high cobalt was detected in nickel telluride in the Juomasuo and Konttiaho, and mattagamites from Ozernoe and Juomasuo contain significant Fe.In the Ozernoe uranium occurrence, the main mineral-concentrator of selenium is molybdenite, which contains up to 16 wt.% of Se in the marginal parts of the grains. The molybdenite is rich in Re (up to 1.2 wt.%), and the impurity of Re is irregularly distributed in molybdenite flakes and spherulites.

Isoelectronic perturbations to f-d-electron hybridization and the enhancement of hidden order in URu2Si2

Electrical resistivity measurements were performed on single crystals of URu2–xOsxSi2 up to x = 0.28 under hydrostatic pressure up to P = 2 GPa. As the Os concentration, x, is increased, 1) the lattice expands, creating an effective negative chemical pressure Pch(x); 2) the hidden-order (HO) phase is enhanced and the system is driven toward a large-moment antiferromagnetic (LMAFM) phase; and 3) less external pressure Pc is required to induce the HO→LMAFM phase transition. We compare the behavior of the T(x, P) phase boundary reported here for the URu2-xOsxSi2 system with previous reports of enhanced HO in URu2Si2 upon tuning with P or similarly in URu2–xFexSi2 upon tuning with positive Pch(x). It is noteworthy that pressure, Fe substitution, and Os substitution are the only known perturbations that enhance the HO phase and induce the first-order transition to the LMAFM phase in URu2Si2. We present a scenario in which the application of pressure or the isoelectronic substitution of Fe and Os ions for Ru results in an increase in the hybridization of the U-5f-electron and transition metal d-electron states which leads to electronic instability in the paramagnetic phase and the concurrent formation of HO (and LMAFM) in URu2Si2. Calculations in the tight-binding approximation are included to determine the strength of hybridization between the U-5f-electron states and the d-electron states of Ru and its isoelectronic Fe and Os substituents in URu2Si2.