Valence-band electronic structure of CdO, ZnO, and MgO from x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and quasi-particle-corrected density-functional theory calculations

The valence-band density of states of single-crystalline rock-salt CdO(001), wurtzite $c$-plane ZnO, and rock- salt MgO(001) are investigated by high-resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. A classic two-peak structure is observed in the VB-DOS due to the anion $2p$-dominated valence bands. Good agreement is found between the experimental results and quasi-particle-corrected density-functional theory calculations. Occupied shallow semicore $d$ levels are observed in CdO and ZnO. While these exhibit similar spectral features to the calculations, they occur at slightly higher binding energies, determined as 8.8 eV and 7.3 eV below the valence band maximum in CdO and ZnO, respectively. The implications of these on the electronic structure are discussed.