Orbital Specificity in the Unoccupied States of UO2 from Resonant Inverse Photoelectron Spectroscopy

One of the crucial questions of all actinide electronic structure determinations is the issue of 5f versus 6d character and the distribution of these components across the density of states. Here, a breakthough experiment is discussed, which has allowed the direct determination of the U5f and U6d contributions to the unoccupied density of states in uranium dioxide. A novel resonant inverse photoelectron and x-ray emission spectroscopy investigation of UO2 is presented. It is shown that the U5f and U6d components are isolated and identified unambiguously.