No Arabic abstract
How coherent quasiparticles emerge by doping quantum antiferromagnets is a key question in correlated electron systems, whose resolution is needed to elucidate the phase diagram of copper oxides. Recent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments in hole-doped cuprates have purported to measure high-energy collective spin excitations that persist well into the overdoped regime and bear a striking resemblance to those found in the parent compound, challenging the perception that spin excitations should weaken with doping and have a diminishing effect on superconductivity. Here we show that RIXS at the Cu L3-edge indeed provides access to the spin dynamical structure factor once one considers the full influence of light polarization. Further we demonstrate that high-energy spin excitations do not correlate with the doping dependence of Tc, while low-energy excitations depend sensitively on doping and show ferromagnetic correlations. This suggests that high-energy spin excitations are marginal to pairing in cuprate superconductors.
We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the magnetic excitations in SrFe2As2, the parent of a family of iron-based superconductors. The data extend throughout the Brillouin zone and up to energies of ~260meV. An analysis with the local-moment J_1-J2 model implies very different in-plane nearest-neighbor exchange parameters along the $a$ and $b$ directions, both in the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases. However, the spectrum calculated from the J1-J2 model deviates significantly from our data. We show that the qualitative features that cannot be described by the J1-J2 model are readily explained by calculations from a 5-band itinerant mean-field model.
Low-energy electron excitation spectra were measured on a single crystal of a typical iron-based superconductor PrFeAsO$_{0.7}$ using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Fe-$L_3$ edge. Characteristic RIXS features are clearly observed around 0.5, 1-1.5 and 2-3 eV energy losses. These excitations are analyzed microscopically with theoretical calculations using a 22-orbital model derived from first-principles electronic structure calculation. Based on the agreement with the experiment, the RIXS features are assigned to Fe-$d$ orbital excitations which, at low energies, are accompanied by spin flipping and dominated by Fe $d_{yz}$ and $d_{xz}$ orbital characters. Furthermore, our calculations suggest dispersive momentum dependence of the RIXS excitations below 0.5 eV, and predict remarkable splitting and merging of the lower-energy excitations in momentum space. Those excitations, which were not observed in the present experiment, highlight the potential of RIXS with an improved energy resolution to unravel new details of the electronic structure of the iron-based superconductors.
The strongly correlated insulator Ca$_{2}$RuO$_4$ is considered as a paradigmatic realization of both spin-orbital physics and a band-Mott insulating phase, characterized by orbitally selective coexistence of a band and a Mott gap. We present a high-resolution oxygen $K$-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering study of the antiferromagnetic Mott insulating state of Ca$_{2}$RuO$_4$. A set of low-energy ($sim$80 and 400 meV) and high-energy ($sim$1.3 and 2.2 eV) excitations are reported that show strong incident light polarization dependence. Our results strongly support a spin-orbit coupled band-Mott scenario and explore in detail the nature of its exotic excitations. Guided by theoretical modelling, we interpret the low-energy excitations as a result of composite spin-orbital excitations. Their nature unveil the intricate interplay of crystal-field splitting and spin-orbit coupling in the band-Mott scenario. The high-energy excitations correspond to intra-atomic singlet-triplet transitions at an energy scale set by the Hunds coupling. Our findings give a unifying picture of the spin and orbital excitations in the band-Mott insulator Ca$_{2}$RuO$_4$.
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the oxygen $K$-edge has recently accessed multi-spinon excitations in the one-dimensional antiferromagnet (1D-AFM) sco, where four-spinon excitations are resolved separately from the two-spinon continuum. This technique, therefore, provides new opportunities to study fractionalized quasiparticle excitations in doped 1D-AFMs. To this end, we carried out exact diagonalization studies of the doped $t$-$J$ model and provided predictions for oxygen $K$-edge RIXS experiments on doped 1D-AFMs. We show that the RIXS spectra are rich, containing distinct two- and four-spinon excitations, dispersive (anti)holon excitations, and combinations thereof. Our results highlight how RIXS complements inelastic neutron scattering experiments by accessing additional charge and spin components of fractionalized quasiparticles.
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 high-resolution RIXS measurements of magnetic excitations of La2CuO4, the antiferromagnetic parent of one system of high-temperature superconductors. At high energies (~2 eV), the RIXS spectra show angular-dependent dd orbital excitations which are found to be in good agreement with single-site multiplet calculations. At lower energies (<0.3 eV), we show that the wavevector-dependent RIXS intensities are proportional to the product of the single-ion spin-flip cross section and the dynamical susceptibility of the spin-wave excitations. When the spin-flip crosssection is dividing out, the RIXS magnon intensities show a remarkable resemblance to INS data. Our results show that RIXS is a quantitative probe the dynamical spin susceptibility in cuprate and therefore should be used for quantitative investigation of other correlated electron materials.