High-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the electron-phonon coupling in honeycomb $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$

Abstract

The excitations in honeycomb $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$ have been investigated with high-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the O K edge. The low-energy response is dominated by a fully resolved ladder of excitations, which we interpret as being due to multi-phonon processes in the presence of strong electron-phonon coupling (EPC). At higher energies, the orbital excitations are shown to be dressed by phonons. The high quality of the data permits a quantitative test of the analytical model for the RIXS cross-section, which has been proposed to describe EPC in transition metal oxides (TMOs). We find that the magnitude of the EPC is comparable to that found for a range of 3d TMOs. This indicates that EPC may be of equal importance in determining the phenomenology displayed by corresponding 5d based systems.

arXiv commentAccepted in Physical Review B

References in corpus (43)

• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering Studies of Elementary Excitations
• Kitaev-Heisenberg Model on Honeycomb Lattice: Possible Exotic Phases in Iridium Oxides $A_2$IrO${}_3$
• Relevance of the Heisenberg-Kitaev model for the honeycomb lattice iridates A_2IrO_3
• Models and Materials for Generalized Kitaev Magnetism
• Spin waves and revised crystal structure of honeycomb iridate Na2IrO3
• Challenges in Design of Kitaev Materials: Magnetic Interactions from Competing Energy Scales
• Physics of the Kitaev model: fractionalization, dynamical correlations, and material connections
• Isospin Dynamics in Sr2IrO4 : Forging Links to Cuprate Superconductivity
• Hyper-honeycomb iridate $\beta$-Li2IrO3 as a platform for Kitaev magnetism
• Dynamics of a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid: signatures of emergent Majorana fermions and fluxes
• Crystal field splitting and correlation effect on the electronic structure of A2IrO3
• Kitaev interactions between j=1/2 moments in honeycomb Na2IrO3 are large and ferromagnetic: insights from ab initio quantum chemistry calculations
• Large field-induced gap of Kitaev-Heisenberg paramagnons in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Incommensurate Counterrotating Magnetic Order Stabilized by Kitaev Interactions in the Layered Honeycomb $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Kitaev-Heisenberg-J2-J3 model for the iridates A2IrO3
• Non-coplanar and counter-rotating incommensurate magnetic order stabilized by Kitaev interactions in $\gamma$-Li2IrO3
• Unconventional magnetic order on the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev lattice in $\beta$-Li2IrO3: full solution via magnetic resonant x-ray diffraction
• Thermal Transport in the Kitaev Model
• Excitonic quasiparticles in a spin-orbit Mott insulator
• Approximately quantized thermal Hall effect of chiral liquids coupled to phonons
• Raman spectroscopic signature of fractionalized excitations in the harmonic-honeycomb iridates $\beta$- and $\gamma$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• The Role of Lattice Coupling in Establishing Electronic and Magnetic Properties in Quasi-One-Dimensional Cuprates
• Magnetic excitation spectrum of Na2IrO3 probed with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Determining the Electron-Phonon Coupling Strength in Correlated Electron Systems from Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
• Directly characterizing the relative strength and momentum dependence of electron-phonon coupling using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Fingerprints of Kitaev physics in the magnetic excitations of honeycomb iridates
• Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering response of the Kitaev honeycomb model
• Single crystal growth from separated educts and its application to lithium transition-metal oxides
• Electron-lattice interactions strongly renormalize the charge transfer energy in the spin-chain cuprate Li${}_2$CuO${}_2$
• Experimental Determination of Momentum-Resolved Electron-Phonon Coupling
• Polarization resolved Cu $L_3$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of orbital and spin excitations in NdBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$
• Charge-orbital-lattice coupling effects in the dd-excitation profile of one dimensional cuprates
• Electronic excitations in the edge-shared relativistic Mott insulator: Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Dispersive Magnetic and Electronic Excitations in Iridate Perovskites Probed with Oxygen $K$-Edge Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
• Spin dynamics and field-induced magnetic phase transition in the honeycomb Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• High-pressure versus isoelectronic doping effect on the honeycomb iridate Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Demonstration of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering as a probe of exciton-phonon coupling
• Orbital superexchange and crystal field simultaneously at play in YVO3: resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the V L edge and the O K edge
• Decoupling carrier concentration and electron-phonon coupling in oxide heterostructures observed with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Lattice coupling and Franck-Condon effects in K-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
• Resolving the nature of electronic excitations in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Magnetic excitations in hole-doped Sr2IrO4: A comparison with electron-doped cuprates

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Fingerprints of Kitaev physics in the magnetic excitations of honeycomb iridates
• Beyond Kitaev physics in strong spin-orbit coupled magnets
• Determining the Electron-Phonon Coupling in Superconducting Cuprates by Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering: Methods and Results on Nd${}_{1+x}$Ba${}_{2-x}$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$
• Generalization of the Franck-Condon model for phonon excitations by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
• Nearly itinerant electronic groundstate in the intercalated honeycomb iridate Ag${}_3$LiIr${}_2$O${}_6$
• Probing electron-phonon interactions away from the Fermi level with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Magnon-spinon dichotomy in the Kitaev hyperhoneycomb $\beta$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Disparate exciton-phonon couplings for zone center and boundary phonons in solid-state graphite
• Magnetic excitations in double perovskite iridates La${}_2$$M$IrO${}_6$ ($M$ = Co, Ni, and Zn) mediated by 3$d$-5$d$ hybridization
• Optical magnons with dominant bond-directional exchange interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate $\alpha$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• RIXS interferometry and the role of disorder in the quantum magnet Ba${}_3$Ti${}_{3-x}$Ir${}_x$O${}_9$
• Beyond the single-site approximation modeling of electron-phonon coupling effects on resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra
• Decoupling of Static and Dynamic Charge Correlations revealed by Uniaxial Strain in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Theory of electron-phonon interactions in extended correlated systems probed by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Spin-orbital-lattice entanglement in the ideal j=1/2 compound K${}_2$IrCl${}_6$
• Non-local features of the spin-orbit exciton in Kitaev materials
• A set-up for Hard X-ray Time-resolved Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering at SwissFEL
• Strong long-wavelength electron-phonon coupling in Ta${}_2$Ni(Se,S)${}_5$