Dysprosium compounds studied by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and high-resolution X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy

A set of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) studies focusing on the 2p64fn → 2p54fn5d1(2p54fn+15d0) → 2p63d94fn5d1(2p63d94fn+15d0) channel of dysprosium in Dy metal, Dy2O3, DyNi3 and Dy25Fe18 compounds have been carried out. Data showed with high statistics and resolution, the different delocalization degree of the 5d band of dysprosium in these compounds, e.g., decreasing from Dy metal to DyNi3, Dy25Fe18 and to dysprosium oxide, in agreement with the high-resolution XANES (HRXANES) spectra. Band structure calculations performed on Dy metal and Dy2O3 confirm both RIXS and HRXANES results in the increasing delocalization of the dysprosium 5d band in Dy metal with respect to Dy2O3. The 5d orbital occupancies of DyNi3 and Dy25Fe18 alloys have been also studied by comparison of the HRXANES white line (WL) area with the behavior of the final states energy position in RIXS spectra and we show that DyNi3 has a higher 5d orbital occupancy than Dy25Fe18.