Deduction of the chemical state and the electronic structure of Nd2Fe14B compound from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy core-level and valence-band spectra

Characterization of chemical state and electronic structure of the technologically important Nd2Fe14B compound is attractive for understanding the physical nature of its excellent magnetic properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study of such rare-earth compound is important and also challenging due to the easy oxidation of surface and small photoelectron cross-sections of rare-earth 4f electrons and B 2p electrons, etc. Here, we reported an investigation based on XPS spectra of Nd2Fe14B compound as a function of Ar ion sputtering time. The chemical state of Fe and that of B in Nd2Fe14B compound can be clearly determined to be 0 and −3, respectively. The Nd in Nd2Fe14B compound is found to have the chemical state of close to +3 instead of +3 as compared with the Nd in Nd2O3. In addition, by comparing the valence-band spectrum of Nd2Fe14B compound to that of the pure Fe, the contributions from Nd, Fe, and B to the valence-band structure of Nd2Fe14B compound is made more clear. The B 2p states and B 2s states are identified to be at ∼11.2 eV and ∼24.6 eV, respectively, which is reported for the first time. The contribution from Nd 4f states can be identified both in XPS core-level spectrum and XPS valence-band spectrum. Although Nd 4f states partially hybridize with Fe 3d states, Nd 4f states are mainly localized in Nd2Fe14B compound.