X-ray spectroscopy study of the electronic structure of non-centrosymmetric Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal

•Electronic structure of Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal has been studied by XPS and XES.•Low hygroscopicity is characteristic of Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal surface.•Ag 4d states contribute mainly in the central portion of the valence band.•Cd 4d states contribute predominantly at the bottom of the valence band.•S 3p states contribute mainly in the central and upper portions of the valence band.

We report on studies of the electronic structure of Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal grown by the horizontal gradient freeze technique. For the crystal under consideration, X-ray photoelectron core-level and valence-band spectra for pristine and Ar+-ion irradiated surfaces have been measured. The present X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal surface is very rigid with respect to Ar+ ion-irradiation. In particular, Ar+ bombardment of the single crystal surface does not induce any significant changes of values of the binding energies of core-level electrons as well as the energy distribution of electronic states within the valence-band region. The Ar+ bombardment does not change the elemental stoichiometry of the Ag2CdSnS4 surface. For the Ag2CdSnS4 compound, the X-ray emission bands representing the energy distribution of the valence Ag d, Cd d and S p states were recorded and compared on a common energy scale with the XPS valence-band spectrum. Results of such a comparison indicate that the S 3p states contribute predominantly in the upper and central portions of the valence band of the Ag2CdSnS4 single crystal. In addition, our data reveal that the Ag 4d and Cd 4d states contribute mainly in the central portion and at the bottom of the valence band, respectively.

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