Investigation of thickness dependence on electronic structures of iron and nickel thin films by L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy

We have studied the effect of the film thickness on the electronic structure of pure nickel and iron thin films. Series of the thin films were evaporated by e-beam evaporation on SiN substrates. The electronic structure of the thin films was investigated using X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. We have showed the thickness dependent variation of the experimental branching ratio (BR) and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) at the L-3 and L-2 edges for both thin films. A strong thickness dependence of the L-2,L-3 BR and FWHM was found. We have also focused on the deviation of L-3 to L-2 ratio from its statistical value. The average L-3/L-2 white-line intensity ratio was calculated to be 3.4 and 3.0 from peak height and integrated area under each L-3 and L-2 peaks, respectively for iron. Additionally, a theoretical L-2,L-3 edge calculation for nickel was presented. The obtained results were consistent with the general view of the L-2,L-3 BR and FWHM of iron and nickel transition metals. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.