SITE-PROJECTED AND SYMMETRY-PROJECTED BAND-STRUCTURE MEASURED BY RESONANT INELASTIC SOFT-X-RAY SCATTERING

We demonstrate that resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering can be us ed to study the electronic band structure of SiC quantitatively. Band mapping is enabled by the crystal momentum selectivity, due to conserv ation of momentum in the scattering process. Additionally, the dipole transition-matrix elements which govern the intensity of the absorptio n-emission process lead to a projection of the band states on atomic s ites and local angular-momentum symmetry. This yields unique band-stru cture information about the spatial distribution and local symmetry ch aracter of the valence-band states. By studying a compound material we demonstrate here the full capability of this technique and we present the projection of the valence bands states of cubic SiC on local sili con (s + d) and carbon p symmetries.