Valence states and electronic structures of Co and Mn substituted spin gapless semiconductor PbPdO2

Electronic structures of Pb(Pd0.9T0.1)O-2 (T = Mn, Co) spin gapless semiconductors have been investigated by employing soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and photoemission spectroscopy (PES). The valence states of Co and Mn ions are found to be mixed-valent (similar to 2.7) and tetravalent, respectively. The measured valence-band PES and O 1s XAS spectra show that both PbPdO2 and PbPd0.9Co0.1O2 are small-gap semiconductors. This finding is supported by the calculated band structures, obtained in the density functional theory with the modified Becke-Johnson potential (mBJ) scheme. This work also shows evidence for the existence of the phase separation in Mn-substituted PbPd0.9Mn0.1O2. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.