Determining binding energies of valence-band electrons in insulators and semiconductors via lanthanide spectroscopy

Models and methods to determine the absolute binding energy of 4f - shell electrons in lanthanide dopants will be combined with data on the energy of electron transfer from the valence band to a lanthanide dopant. This work will show that it provides a powerful tool to determine the absolute binding energy of valence band electrons throughout the entire family of insulator and semiconductor compounds. The tool will be applied to 28 fluoride, oxide, and nitride compounds providing the work function and electron affinity together with the location of the energy levels of all divalent and all trivalent lanthanide dopants with an accuracy that surpasses that of traditional methods like photoelectron spectroscopy. The 28 compounds were selected to demonstrate how work function and electron affinity change with composition and structure, and how electronic structure affects the optical properties of the lanthanide dopants. Data covering more than 1000 different halide (F, Cl, Br, I), chalcogenide (O, S, Se), and nitride compounds are available in the archival literature enabling us to routinely establish work function and electron affinity for this much wider collection of compounds. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.87.035118