Experimental and theoretical study of the electronic structure of ion-beam-synthesized substoichiometric titanium carbides

Non-stoichiometric titanium carbide layers TiCx with x = 0.26, 0.49 and 0.78 have been synthesized by multiple-energy carbon-ion implantation at the surface of pure titanium. Changes in the binary alloy electronic properties Versus defect concentration are studied by core Ti2p and valence X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). A self-consistent Tight Binding Linear Muffin Tin Orbital (TB-LMTO) calculation with empty spheres in place of the missing carbon atoms (i.e. C1-x) gives the total density of occupied states in comparison with observed XPS. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.