CORE LEVEL AND VALENCE BAND X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY OF GOLD OXIDE

Reactive sputter deposition was used to grow a phase-separated 0.40 Au/0.56 Au2O3/0.04 Au-hydroxide cermet film and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to examine the Au 4f and O 1s core electron binding energy of each phase. The valence band structure of Au2O3 is reported here for the first time, and consists of an O 2p electron-derived peak centered at 5.5 eV and a density of states that approaches zero at the Fermi energy, characteristic of a semiconductor. The results are compared to other third long period conducting and semiconducting oxides.