Electronic-structure investigation of CeB₆ by means of soft-x-ray scattering

The electronic structure of the heavy fermion compound CeB₆ is probed by resonant inelastic soft-x-ray scattering using photon energies across the Ce∼3d and 4d absorption edges. The hybridization between the localized 4f orbitals and the delocalized valence-band states is studied by identifying the different spectral contributions from inelastic Raman scattering and normal fluorescence. Pronounced energy-loss structures are observed below the elastic peak at both the 3d and 4d thresholds. The origin and character of the inelastic scattering structures are discussed in terms of charge-transfer excitations in connection to the dipole allowed transitions with 4f character. Calculations within the single-impurity Anderson model with full multiplet effects are found to yield consistent spectral functions to the experimental data.