Electronic structure and X-ray spectroscopic properties of YbNi2P2

Abstract X-ray absorption spectrum at the Yb L 3 edge and X-ray emission spectra of Ni and P at the K and L 2,3 edges have been studied experimentally and theoretically in the mixed valent compound YbNi 2 P 2 with ThCr 2 Si 2 type crystal structure. The electronic structure of YbNi 2 P 2 is investigated using the fully relativistic Dirac linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) band-structure method. The effect of the spin–orbit (SO) interaction and Coulomb repulsion U on the electronic structure of YbNi 2 P 2 is examined in the frame of the LSDA + SO +  U method. The core-hole effect in the final states as well as the effect of the electric quadrupole E 2 transitions have been investigated. A good agreement between the theory and the experiment was found. Both the trivalent and the divalent Yb ions in YbNi 2 P 2 are reflected in the experimentally measured Yb L 3 X-ray absorption spectrum simultaneously. We found that the best agreement between the experimental spectrum and sum of the theoretically calculated Yb 2+ and Yb 3+ spectra is achieved with 73% ytterbium ions in 2+ state and 27% ions in 3+ state.