The electronic structures of undoped and fluorine-doped LaFeAsO superconductors and fluorine-doped SmFeAsO superconductors are studied using soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy combined with full potential linearized augmented planes waves (FP LAPW) calculations. The comparison between the numerical simulations and the experimental $\text{Fe}L$-emission spectra shows that the Fe states are concentrated near $E_F$, suggesting that the materials are not highly correlated systems. The comparison of the O $K$-edge and $\text{F}K$-edge spectra with the calculated density of states shows that the F dopants do not directly participate in the electronic structure near $E_F$, and so they serve the same purpose as an oxygen vacancy leading to an increase in the number of available charge carriers. Increasing the amount of fluorine doped into the structure of SmFeAsO is shown to cause a narrowing of the bandwidth of occupied O valence states.

• Received 14 August 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.220503