Evidence of electron correlation and weak bulk plasmon in SrMoO$_{3}$

TL;DR

This study combines photoemission spectroscopy and advanced calculations to reveal moderate electron correlation and weak bulk plasmon features in SrMoO₃, highlighting differences between surface and bulk electronic structures.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of surface and bulk electronic structures of SrMoO₃, demonstrating moderate correlation and weak bulk plasmon presence through combined experimental and theoretical approaches.

Findings

Bulk spectra show weak plasmon satellite.

Surface spectra exhibit strong electron correlation and large plasmon satellite.

DFT + DMFT accurately models bulk electronic structure.

Abstract

We investigate the electronic structure of highly conducting perovskite SrMoO$_{3}$ using valence band photoemission spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations. Large intensity corresponding to coherent feature close to Fermi level is captured by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. An additional satellite at $\sim$ 3 eV binding energy remains absent in DFT, hybrid functional (DFT-hybrid) and dynamical mean field theory (DFT + DMFT) calculations. Mo 4$d$ spectra obtained with different surface sensitive photoemission spectroscopy suggest different surface and bulk electronic structures. DFT + DMFT spectral function is in excellent agreement with the coherent feature in the bulk Mo 4$d$ spectra, revealing moderate electron correlation strength. A large plasmon satellite and signature of strong electron correlation are observed in the surface spectra, while the bulk spectra exhibits a $weak$ plasmon satellite.