Dynamical spin susceptibility in La2CuO4 studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.103.224427

Authors: H. C. Robarts (Diamond Light Source; University of Bristol) , M. Garcia-Fernandez (Diamond Light Source) , J. Li (Diamond Light Source) , A. Nag (Diamond Light Source) , A. C. Walters (Diamond Light Source) , N. E. Headings (University of Bristol) , S. M. Hayden (University of Bristol) , K.-J. Zhou (Diamond Light Source)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review B , VOL 103

State: Published (Approved)
Published: June 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 18469

Abstract: Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) is a powerful probe of elementary excitations in solids. It is now widely applied to study magnetic excitations. However, its complex cross section means that RIXS has been more difficult to interpret than inelastic neutron scattering (INS). Here we report ∼ 37 meV resolution RIXS measurements of the magnetic excitations in La 2 CuO 4 , the antiferromagnetic parent of one system of high-temperature superconductors. At high energies ( ∼ 2 eV), the RIXS spectra show angular-dependent d d orbital excitations in agreement with previous RIXS studies but show new structure. They are interpreted with single-site multiplet calculations. At low energies ( ≲ 0.3 eV), we model the wave-vector-dependent single magnon RIXS intensity as the product of the calculated single-ion spin-flip RIXS cross section and the dynamical structure factor S ( Q , ω ) of the spin-wave excitations. When S ( Q , ω ) is extracted from our data, the wave-vector-dependence of the single-magnon pole intensity shows a similar variation to that observed by INS. Our results confirm that suitably corrected RIXS data can yield the genuine wave-vector and energy dependence of S ( Q , ω ) for a cuprate antiferromagnet. In addition to spin waves, our data show structured multimagnon excitations with dispersing peaks in the intensity at energies higher than the single-magnon excitations.

Journal Keywords: Magnetic interactions; Magnons; High-temperature superconductors; Magnetic insulators; Crystal-field theory; Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I21-Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS)

Added On: 22/06/2021 15:03

Documents:
PhysRevB.103.224427.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Superconductors Quantum Materials Hard condensed matter - electronic properties Physics Magnetism Materials Science

Technical Tags:

Scattering Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS)