Electronic structure of BaTiO3 using resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy at the Ba-L3 and Ti-K absorption edges

• Electronic structure of the ferroelectric BaTiO3 using resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy.
• No sign of atomic displacement found around the Ba ion, contrary to previous results.
• Delocalized character evidenced for the Ti 3d band, consistently with previous calculations.

We have studied the electronic properties of the ferroelectric barium titanate BaTiO3 using two complementary bulk-sensitive spectroscopic probes, resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy (RXES) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the partial fluorescence mode (PFY-XAS) at the Ba-L3 and Ti-K absorption edges. Contrary to a previous study, we found no fine structure in the pre-edge area of the PFY-XAS spectrum at the Ba-L3 edge, and no temperature-induced spectral change was observed between room temperature and 150 °C. This result is not supportive of the possible presence of the displacement around Ba2+ at the Curie temperature. RXES spectra were measured at the Ti-K edge for BaTiO3, along with SrTiO3 and La-doped metallic SrTiO3. The photon energy of the emission peak is found to be nearly constant throughout the absorption edge for all three compounds. We deduce the Ti 3d states to have a delocalized character, in contrast with the Ba 5d states, a property which is consistent with the proposed scenario of the formation of electric dipoles in BaTiO3.