W 4f electron binding energies in amorphous W-B-C systems
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Authors
Organisational units
External Organisational units
- Brno University of Technology
- Masaryk University
- RWTH Aachen
Abstract
In this paper, we critically evaluate the applicability of the procedure proposed in [Mirzaei et al., Surf. Coat. Technol. 358 (2019) 843–849] which is based on the fitting of the XPS spectrum of amorphous W-B-C material into three components with fixed peak positions to get the relative amount of W-W, W-B, and W-C bonds. We show that W-W bonds substantially influence positions of the peak components. We have verified this assumption by generating a set of models of amorphous W-B-C with different compositions (W:B:C ratio) and calculating the W 4f core electron binding energies employing ab initio methods. This enabled us to formulate the relationship between the W 4f electron binding energies (BE) and the local atomic environments of W atoms. Our analysis confirms the expected W 4f chemical shifts in W-B-C caused by W-B and W-C bonds and reveals that W-W bonds shift the W 4f electronic states in the same direction as W-B bonds, which has substantial implications for the correct interpretation of the measured XPS spectra.
Details
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 152824 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Applied surface science |
Volume | 586.2022 |
Issue number | 1 June |
Early online date | 12 Feb 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2022 |