Photoemission studies on metallic glasses using synchrotron radiation

We report on the use of UV synchrotron radiation in the energy range 40–120 eV to probe the electron states of CuZr, FeZr, CoZr and CuHf amorphous alloys. The great advantage of tunable radiation over fixed frequency sources is that it allows identification of the electron states from a knowledge of the energy dependences of their scattering cross-sections. This variation is particularly pronounced in the case of the d states of zirconium which are essentially removed from the observed photoelectron spectra as the photon energy is increased from 40 eV to about 100 eV. The results confirm, for example, that for CuZr alloys it is the d states from zirconium that lie at the Fermi level.

By combining these results with those obtained from a technique involving constant initial states the scattering cross-sections for the Zr 4d and Cu 3d states were investigated. This will allow the experimental photoemission data to be corrected to give a more representative picture of the electronic band structure of these alloys, and has laid the foundation for extending the method to other newer alloy systems where the electron states have still not been identified.