Study of the optical properties of pyridine intercalated niobium disulphide by electron energy loss spectroscopy

High energy electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) has been used to study the influence of the intercalation with pyridine on the optical properties of the host material 2H-NbS₂. The optical joint density of states function OJDOS(ω) of the intercalated material is found to be well represented by a linear superposition of the OJDOS of pure NbS₂ and that of pyridine. A charge transfer from pyridine to NbS₂ of (0.27±0.05) electrons per NbS₂ formula unit is deduced from the energy shift of the d-band plasmon loss relative to the pure host material. Assuming this shift to be caused by a change in the charge density contributing to the d-band plasmon is confirmed by an unchanged effective mass of the electrons in the d_z2 band upon intercalation as has been deduced from the dispersion of the plasmon in question.