Resolving the nature of electronic excitations in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Abstract

The study of elementary bosonic excitations is essential toward a complete description of quantum electronic solids. In this context, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) has recently risen to becoming a versatile probe of electronic excitations in strongly correlated electron systems. The nature of the radiation-matter interaction endows RIXS with the ability to resolve the charge, spin and orbital nature of individual excitations. However, this capability has been only marginally explored to date. Here, we demonstrate a systematic method for the extraction of the character of excitations as imprinted in the azimuthal dependence of the RIXS signal. Using this novel approach, we resolve the charge, spin, and orbital nature of elastic scattering, (para-)magnon/bimagnon modes, and higher energy dd excitations in magnetically-ordered and superconducting copper-oxide perovskites (Nd2CuO4 and YBa2Cu3O6.75). Our method derives from a direct application of scattering theory, enabling us to deconstruct the complex scattering tensor as a function of energy loss. In particular, we use the characteristic tensorial nature of each excitation to precisely and reliably disentangle the charge and spin contributions to the low energy RIXS spectrum. This procedure enables to separately track the evolution of spin and charge spectral distributions in cuprates with doping. Our results demonstrate a new capability that can be integrated into the RIXS toolset, and that promises to be widely applicable to materials with intertwined spin, orbital, and charge excitations.

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Orbital and Spin Character of Doped Carriers in Infinite-Layer Nickelates
• Multi-orbital charge density wave excitations and concomitant phonon anomalies in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$LaCuO${}_{6+\delta }$
• Polarization resolved Cu $L_3$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of orbital and spin excitations in NdBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$
• Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$: a progress report
• High-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the electron-phonon coupling in honeycomb $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Dynamical spin susceptibility in La2CuO4 studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Orbital Symmetry and Orbital Excitations in High-$T_c$ Superconductors
• Unravelling the Nature of Spin Excitations Disentangled from Charge Contributions in a Doped Cuprate Superconductor
• Crystalline and magnetic structure of Ba2CuO3+δ investigated by x-ray absorption spectroscopy and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Post-growth annealing effects on charge and spin excitations in Nd${}_{2-x}$Ce${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• Polarization dependency in Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering
• Time-resolved Photoluminescence in Terahertz-driven Hybrid Systems of Plasmons and Excitons