Electronic structure of Fe2P(101¯0) studied by soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy

•The Fe2P(101¯0) surface is reconstructed to show a c(2 × 2) LEED pattern.•The electronic structure of c(2 × 2) Fe2P(101¯0) was investigated by resonant PES.•The Fe 3d states form a band with large DOS at just below EF.•Analyses of core-level spectra show a metallic nature of the Fe 3d band.•The ligand effect on the Fe sites on Fe2P surfaces is not effective unlike the case of Ni2P. The electronic structure of Fe2P(101¯0) has been investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The surface prepared by cycles of Ar+ ion sputtering and annealing at 500–800°C showed a c(2 × 2) low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) pattern. An Fe 3d–P 3p hybrid band (main band) and a satellite were observed at 0–4eV and 5–8eV, respectively, in PES spectra of c(2 × 2) Fe2P(101¯0). The main band showed a clear cut-off at the Fermi edge, indicating the metallic nature of Fe2P. The satellite intensity showed a resonant maximum around the Fe 3p threshold, suggesting that the satellite is caused through a shake-up process. Three types of surface-shifted components were found in P 2p PES spectra. All the P 2p peaks have symmetric line shapes, while the Fe 2p PES and Fe L-edge XAS spectra have asymmetric line shapes, suggesting that the electronic states around the Fermi level are mostly composed of Fe 3d components. These results suggest that the stabilization of the electronic structure at metal sites through the bonding with P atoms is ineffective on Fe2P(101¯0), as in the case of Fe2P(0001). [Display omitted]