Compton scattering on complex materials

Abstract

Silicon clathrates are cage-like structures with silicon atoms building up a covalently bond host lattice. Depending on the type of trapped guest atoms the physical properties of the clathrate materials are variing in a broad range. They include extreme hardness, superconductivity and promising applications as optoelectronic or thermoelectric materials. As the guest-host interaction in clathrate materials is playing a major role for understanding the complex structures this thesis is presenting a combined experimental and theoretical analysis of the electronic structure of alkali-metal doped silicon clathrates. Focussing on the Compton scattering technique, the experimental results are compared with density functional theory calculations and are discussed in terms of charge transfer.