Electronic structure of the double-perovskite Ba2FeMoO6 using photoemission spectroscopy

Abstract

The electronic structure of Ba2FeMoO6 (BFMO) has been investigated by using photoemission spectroscopy (PES). By varying hv across the Mo 4d Cooper minimum, it is found that the states close to the Fermi level E-F are predominantly of the Mo t(2g) down arrow and Fe t(2g) down arrow character. The measured PES spectrum is compared to the calculated electronic structure obtained in the local spin-density approximation (LSDA) and LSDA+ U methods. The LSDA+ U calculation yields better agreement with experiment in the peak positions than does the LSDA calculation. The present study supports the double exchange mechanism for the half-metallic ferrimagnetism in BFMO.