Investigation of the electronic structure of the cubic spinel Cu1.2Mn1.8O4 using electron energy loss spectroscopy

The room temperature cation valency distribution in the single-phase cubic spinel Cu1.2Mn1.8O4 was extracted using EELS. Analysis of the Cu and Mn L2,3 core-loss edges revealed that all Cu was present as Cu2+ and that a multi-valent Mn ground state existed with the valence fractions: 55% Mn4+, 37% Mn3+ and 8% Mn2+. The pre-peak of the ELNES on the O–K edge confirmed the dominant Mn4+ component whilst the features in the ELNES are identical to those observed in other spinel compounds.