Loss structures in the photoemission spectra of MnO: A careful analysis of peak intensities

A careful and rigorous analysis of the intensities of several features of the Mn 3s x-ray photoemission spectra of MnO, including the satellites at 20-30 eV below the main exchange split peaks is carried out. The previous interpretation of the 20-30 eV satellite is that they arose from electron correlation effects relative to the near degeneracy of the atomic levels. Our work shows that loss processes must also be taken into account. In particular, it is shown that only about 60% of the broad 20-30 eV satellite is due to near degeneracy correlation effects, while a contribution from the shakeup and plasmon loss structures constitutes the remaining 40% of the intensities of this feature