Many-body effects and non-local charge fluctuations in the double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6

Abstract

We studied the electronic structure of Sr2FeMoO6 using core level and valence band photoemission. The spectra were obtained using high energy X-rays of 1840 eV, which provide bulk sensitive information on the electronic structure. The experimental data were analyzed using the spectral weight from cluster model calculations. The ground state reveals a large Fe-O and Mo-O hybridization, as well as the importance of non-local Fe-O-Mo charge fluctuations. The latter is crucial to explain the half-metallic character attributed to the Sr2FeMoO6 compound. The core level and valence band photoemission spectra show charge transfer satellites. These satellites are related to many-body effects and are larger for the Fe levels than for the Mo states.