Electronic structure and Fermi surface of UC studied by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

Abstract We have performed high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on UC to study the band structure and Fermi surface. The valence band structure away from the Fermi level ( E F ) consisting mainly of the C 2p states shows a qualitatively good agreement with the band calculation, suggesting a negligible correlation effect in the C 2p states. In contrast, we found a remarkable narrowing of bands near E F around W point in the Brillouin zone, where a substantial contribution of U 5f states is predicted from the calculation. This suggests the importance of taking into account the correlation effect of U 5f electrons for understanding the electronic structure and physical properties of UC.