The Electronic Spectra of Hg–In Alloys

Abstract

We have made reflectance measurements on liquid Hg–In alloys at near-normal incidence from 0.14 to 4.0 μm. After describing our apparatus, the experimental results, and the treatment of our data we make the following interpretations:(a) that the peak in ε2 at about 8.5 eV consists of a superposition of a d-electron excitation and a plasma (or Hopfield) resonance;(b) that the peak in ε2 at about 5.8 eV is associated with a peak in the density of states and is a consequence of a scattering resonance in the In ion-core pseudopotential;(c) that concentration gradients and a diffuse transition zone at the surface of the liquid alloy may have a significant effect on the optical properties, not only in ellipsometric experiments but also in reflectance experiments;(d) that an excess reflectance which we find at our long-wavelength limit can be explained in terms of an anomalously large density of states at the Fermi level and that this is consistent with available Hall coefficient and magnetic susceptibility data.