Effect of the sample work function on alkali metal dosing induced electronic structure change

•Measurement of work function for three iron-based superconductors: FeSe, Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 and NaFeAs with laser-based ARPES.•Investigation of electronic structure changes upon monolayer of alkali metal dosing for same materials.•Role of sample work function in estimating alkali metal dosing induced electronic structure change. Alkali metal dosing (AMD) has been widely used as a way to control doping without chemical substitution. This technique, in combination with angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), often provides an opportunity to observe unexpected phenomena. However, the amount of transferred charge and the corresponding change in the electronic structure vary significantly depending on the material. Here, we report study on the correlation between the sample work function and alkali metal induced electronic structure change for three iron-based superconductors: FeSe, Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 and NaFeAs which share a similar Fermi surface topology. Electronic structure change upon monolayer of alkali metal dosing and the sample work function were measured by ARPES. Our results show that the degree of electronic structure change is proportional to the difference between the work function of the sample and Mulliken's absolute electronegativity of the dosed alkali metal. This finding provides a possible way to estimate the AMD induced electronic structure change.