Oxygen 1<i>s</i>x-ray-absorption edges of transition-metal oxides

The oxygen 1s x-ray-absorption edges of a series of 3d-transition-metal oxides have been measured. The structures at the edge arise from covalent mixing of the metal and oxygen states, which introduces oxygen p character in unoccupied states of mainly metal character. The spectra can be divided into two regions: The first is a double-peaked sharp structure near threshold, which can be related to the metal 3d states; the second is a broader structure 5--10 eV above the edge and is related to the metal 4s and 4p bands. We attribute the oxygen p character up to 15 eV above threshold to mainly oxygen 2p character. The data are analyzed in terms of ligand-field and exchange splittings. It is shown that the splitting between the two sharp peaks near threshold is related closely to the ligand-field splitting, but the relative intensities of the peaks are not fully explained at the present time.