  Epitaxial semiconducting NiYBi thin films were directly prepared on MgO(100)
substrates by magnetron sputtering. The intensity ratio of the (200) and (400)
diffraction peaks, I(200)/I(400) = 2.93, was close to the theoretical value
(3.03). The electronic structure of NiYBi was calculated using WIEN2k and a
narrow indirect band gap of width 210 meV was found. The valence band spectra
of the films obtained by linear dichroism in hard X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy exhibit clear structures that are in good agreement with the
calculated band structure of NiYBi.
