5f-electron states in uranium dioxide investigated using high-resolution neutron spectroscopy

X-ray synchrotron radiation studies of actinide materials

By reviewing a selection of X-ray diffraction (XRD), resonant X-ray scattering (RXS), X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), resonant and non-resonant inelastic scattering (RIXS, NIXS), and dispersive inelastic scattering (IXS) experiments, the potential of synchrotron radiation techniques in studying lattice and electronic structure, hybridization effects, multipolar order and lattice dynamics in actinide materials is demonstrated.

Resonant inelastic x-ray spectroscopy on UO2 as a test case for actinide materials

Resonant inelastic x-ray spectroscopy at the uranium N4 absorption edge at 778 eV has been used to reveal the excitations in UO2 up to 1 eV. The earlier (1989) studies by neutron inelastic scattering of the crystal-field states within the 3H4 multiplet are confirmed. In addition, the first excited state of the 3F2 multiplet at ∼520 meV has been established, and there is a weak signal corresponding to the next excited state at ∼920 meV. This represents a successful application of soft x-ray spectroscopy to an actinide sample, and resolves an open question in UO2 that has been discussed for 50 years. The technique is described and important caveats are drawn about possible future applications.

The fifty years it has taken to understand the dynamics of UO2in its ordered state

In 1966 Roger Cowley (together with Gerald Dolling) reported the first neutron inelastic scattering from the magnetic excitations from UO2below its antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of 30 K. They showed the strong magnon-phonon coupling in this material and that the excitations appeared to contain an additional mode that was not anticipated. Cowley never returned to UO2, but showed a keen interest in the developments. Forty years after this pioneering work, unambiguous evidence was found (using resonance x-ray techniques) for the ordering belowTNof the electric quadrupoles involving the anisotropy of the 5f chargedistribution around the uranium nuclei. A further 10 years later, now armed with a full theory for the excitation spectrum expected for phonons, magnons, and quadrupoles, we can identify the latter as the source of the 'extra' mode reported first in 1966. The story is a long winding one, with the expected serendipity and dead ends, but is now (almost) completed.

Covalent bonding in heavy metal oxides

Novel theoretical methods were used to quantify the magnitude and the energetic contributions of 4f/5f-O2p and 5d/6d-O2p interactions to covalent bonding in lanthanide and actinide oxides. Although many analyses have neglected the involvement of the frontier d orbitals, the present study shows that f and d covalencies are of comparable importance. Two trends are identified. As is expected, the covalent mixing is larger when the nominal oxidation state is higher. More subtly, the importance of the nf covalent mixing decreases sharply relative to (n + 1)d as the nf occupation increases. Atomic properties of the metal cations that drive these trends are identified.

Piezomagnetism and magnetoelastic memory in uranium dioxide

The thermal and magnetic properties of uranium dioxide, a prime nuclear fuel and thoroughly studied actinide material, remain a long standing puzzle, a result of strong coupling between magnetism and lattice vibrations. The magnetic state of this cubic material is characterized by a 3-k non-collinear antiferromagnetic structure and multidomain Jahn-Teller distortions, likely related to its anisotropic thermal properties. Here we show that single crystals of uranium dioxide subjected to strong magnetic fields along threefold axes in the magnetic state exhibit the abrupt appearance of positive linear magnetostriction, leading to a trigonal distortion. Upon reversal of the field the linear term also reverses sign, a hallmark of piezomagnetism. A switching phenomenon occurs at ±18 T, which persists during subsequent field reversals, demonstrating a robust magneto-elastic memory that makes uranium dioxide the hardest piezomagnet known. A model including a strong magnetic anisotropy, elastic, Zeeman, Heisenberg exchange, and magnetoelastic contributions to the total energy is proposed.

The nuclear fuel uranium dioxide is of intrinsic interest due to its industrial applications but it also exhibits intriguing electronic and magnetic properties. Here, the authors demonstrate how its complex magnetic structure and interactions give rise to a strong piezomagnetic effect.

Slave Boson Theory of Orbital Differentiation with Crystal Field Effects: Application to UO_{2}

We derive an exact operatorial reformulation of the rotational invariant slave boson method, and we apply it to describe the orbital differentiation in strongly correlated electron systems starting from first principles. The approach enables us to treat strong electron correlations, spin-orbit coupling, and crystal field splittings on the same footing by exploiting the gauge invariance of the mean-field equations. We apply our theory to the archetypical nuclear fuel UO_{2} and show that the ground state of this system displays a pronounced orbital differentiation within the 5f manifold, with Mott-localized Γ_{8} and extended Γ_{7} electrons.

On the calculation of multiplet energies of three-open-shell 4f135fn6d1electron configuration by LFDFT: modeling the optical spectra of 4f core-electron excitation in actinide compounds

My presentation relates the modeling of X-ray absorption spectra of actinides, exemplified here by the study of U⁴⁺ion with configuration 4f¹³5f²6d¹.

High-resolution X-ray absorption spectroscopy as a probe of crystal-field and covalency effects in actinide compounds

Applying the high-energy resolution fluorescence-detection (HERFD) mode of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), we were able to probe, for the first time to our knowledge, the crystalline electric field (CEF) splittings of the [Formula: see text] shell directly in the HERFD-XAS spectra of actinides. Using ThO2 as an example, data measured at the Th 3d edge were interpreted within the framework of the Anderson impurity model. Because the charge-transfer satellites were also resolved in the HERFD-XAS spectra, the analysis of these satellites revealed that ThO2 is not an ionic compound as previously believed. The Th [Formula: see text] occupancy in the ground state was estimated to be twice that of the Th [Formula: see text] states. We demonstrate that HERFD-XAS allows for characterization of the CEF interaction and degree of covalency in the ground state of actinide compounds as it is extensively done for 3d transition metal systems.

Core electron excitations in U(4+): modelling of the nd(10)5f(2)→nd(9)5f(3) transitions with n = 3, 4 and 5 by ligand field tools and density functional theory

Ligand field density functional theory (LFDFT) calculations have been used to model the uranium M4,5, N4,5 and O4,5-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) in UO2, characterized by the promotion of one electron from the core and the semi-core 3d, 4d and 5d orbitals of U(4+) to the valence 5f. The model describes the procedure to resolve non-empirically the multiplet energy levels originating from the two-open-shell system with d and f electrons and to calculate the oscillator strengths corresponding to the dipole allowed d(10)f(2)→ d(9)f(3) transitions appropriate to represent the d electron excitation process. In the first step, the energy and UO2 unit-cell volume corresponding to the minimum structures are determined using the Hubbard model (DFT+U) approach. The model of the optical properties due to the uranium nd(10)5f(2)→nd(9)5f(3) transitions, with n = 3, 4 and 5, has been tackled by means of electronic structure calculations based on the ligand field concept emulating the Slater-Condon integrals, the spin-orbit coupling constants and the parameters of the ligand field potential needed by the ligand field Hamiltonian from Density Functional Theory. A deep-rooted theoretical procedure using the LFDFT approach has been established for actinide-bearing systems that can be valuable to compute targeted results, such as spectroscopic details at the electronic scale. As a case study, uranium dioxide has been considered because it is a nuclear fuel material, and both atomic and electronic structure calculations are indispensable for a deeper understanding of irradiation driven microstructural changes occurring in this material.

Ab initio calculation of anisotropic magnetic properties of complexes. I. Unique definition of pseudospin Hamiltonians and their derivation

A methodology for the rigorous nonperturbative derivation of magnetic pseudospin Hamiltonians of mononuclear complexes and fragments based on ab initio calculations of their electronic structure is described. It is supposed that the spin-orbit coupling and other relativistic effects are already taken fully into account at the stage of quantum chemistry calculations of complexes. The methodology is based on the establishment of the correspondence between the ab initio wave functions of the chosen manifold of multielectronic states and the pseudospin eigenfunctions, which allows to define the pseudospin Hamiltonians in the unique way. Working expressions are derived for the pseudospin Zeeman and zero-field splitting Hamiltonian corresponding to arbitrary pseudospins. The proposed calculation methodology, already implemented in the SINGLE_ANISO module of the MOLCAS-7.6 quantum chemistry package, is applied for a first-principles evaluation of pseudospin Hamiltonians of several complexes exhibiting weak, moderate, and very strong spin-orbit coupling effects.

Quadrupolar waves in uranium dioxide

In presence of active orbital degrees of freedom, elementary excitations around a broken-symmetry state may include multipolar waves, but none of these exotic dispersive excitation branches has ever been identified. We show that quadrupolar waves constitute a major component of the dynamics of uranium dioxide in its magnetoquadrupolar ordered phase, and that many unexplained features in existing inelastic neutron scattering data, including a whole excitation branch, are associated with these propagating quadrupolar fluctuations. Our model permits us to separate the role of Jahn-Teller and superexchange mechanisms as sources of quadrupolar interactions.

Electronic structure and bonding in actinyl ions and their analogs

This Feature Article seeks to present the current state of knowledge, both experimental and theoretical, of the electronic structure and bonding in actinyl ions and related species, such as the isoelectronic imido compounds as well as in linear triatomic actinide molecules of the type X-An-Y.

Hybrid density-functional theory and the insulating gap of UO2

We report the first calculations carried out with a periodic boundary condition code capable of examining hybrid density-functional theory (DFT) for f-element solids. We apply it to the electronic structure of the traditional Mott insulator UO2, and find that it correctly yields an antiferromagnetic insulator as opposed to the ferromagnetic metal predicted by the local spin density and generalized gradient approximations. The gap, density of states, and optimum lattice constant are all in good agreement with experiment. We stress that this results from the functional and the variational principle alone. We compare our results with the more traditional approximations.

Magnetic-octupole order in neptunium dioxide?

The phase transition occurring at 25 K in NpO2, discovered almost 50 years ago, is the most long-lasting mystery in the physics of actinide compounds. Theories based on magnetic or electric-quadrupole order lead inevitably to fundamental, qualitative inconsistencies with observations. We show that the phenomenology of NpO2 can be understood if the order parameter is assumed to be a magnetic octupole of gamma(2) ( xyz) symmetry. NpO2 is the first compound for which indications of an octupolar phase transition have been found.