Identifying silicides via plasmon loss satellites in photoemission of the Ru-Si system

• Challenge to identify Ru silicide in photoemission resolved using plasmon features. formation induces loss peak shift of several electronvolts. Experiment and theory show excellent agreement for the identification silicides. Results from model system Ru-Si expected be applicable many metal The phase composition transition silicides are challenging with common surface analysis techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). While is concomitant a distinct change electronic structure, only minute changes main spectral features observed example family Here, authors combine XPS, grazing-incidence diffraction, density functional calculations demonstrate that characteristic excitation energies plasmons its sensitive easily accessible descriptor reflects structure upon specific XPS spectra. Electron energy satellites reported by more than 4 eV silicide, 1.1 between RuSi 2 Si 3 1.9 across measured range layers, making these even basic experimental equipment. In context literature on electron spectroscopy, this approach considered promising general pathway enhance chemical sensitivity methods.