Valence band electronic structure of Pd based ternary chalcogenide superconductors

Abstract

We present a comparative study of the valence band electronic structure of Pd based ternary chalcogenide superconductors Nb2Pd0.95S5, Ta2Pd0.97S6 and Ta2Pd0.97Te6 using experimental photoemission spectroscopy and density functional based theoretical calculations. We observe a qualitatively similarity between valence band (VB) spectra of Nb2Pd0.95S5 and Ta2Pd0.97S6. Further, we find a pseudogap feature in Nb2Pd0.95S5 at low temperature, unlike other two compounds. We have correlated the structural geometry with the differences in VB spectra of these compounds. The different atomic packing in these compounds could vary the strength of inter-orbital hybridization among various atoms which leads to difference in their electronic structure as clearly observed in our DOS calculations.