No Arabic abstract
Under zero magnetic field, a quadrupolar order parameter at q_Q=(1/2,1/2,1/2) in a typical antiferro-quadrupole (AFQ) ordering compound CeB6 has been observed for the first time by means of a resonant X-ray scattering (RXS) te chnique. The RXS is observed at the 2p->5d dipole transition energy of the Ce L3-edge. Using this RXS technique to observe the pure order parameter of the AFQ state, the magnetic phase diagram of Phase II is first determined.
Element-specific x-ray resonant magnetic scattering investigations were performed to determine the magnetic structure of Eu in EuRh2As2. In the temperature range from 46 K down to 6 K, an incommensurate antiferromagnetic (ICM)structure with a temperature dependent propagation vector (0 0 0.9) coexists with a commensurate antiferromagnetic (CM) structure. Angular-dependent measurements of the magnetic intensity indicate that the magnetic moments lie in the tetragonal basal plane and are ferromagnetically aligned within the a-b plane for both magnetic structures. The ICM structure is a spiral-like magnetic structure with a turn angle of 162 deg between adjacent Eu planes. In the CM structure, this angle is 180 deg. These results are consistent with band-structure calculations which indicate a strong sensitivity of the magnetic configuration on the Eu valence.
We investigated the ground state symmetry of the cubic hidden order compound CeB$_6$ by means of core level non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NIXS). The information is obtained from the directional dependence of the scattering function that arises from higher than dipole transitions. Our new method confirms that the ground state is well described using a localized crystal-field model assuming a $Gamma_8$ quartet ground state.
Rare earth (R) half-Heusler compounds, RBiPt, exhibit a wide spectrum of novel ground states. Recently, GdBiPt has been proposed as a potential antiferromagnetic topological insulator (AFTI). We have employed x-ray resonant magnetic scattering to elucidate the microscopic details of the magnetic structure in GdBiPt below T_N = 8.5 K. Experiments at the Gd L_2 absorption edge show that the Gd moments order in an antiferromagnetic stacking along the cubic diagonal [1 1 1] direction satisfying the requirement for an AFTI, where both time-reversal symmetry and lattice translational symmetry are broken, but their product is conserved.
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.
We have performed a resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) study near the Co K edge on a single crystal of Ca3Co2O6. In the magnetically ordered phase a new class of weak reflections appears at the magnetic propagation vector tau (1/3,1/3,1/3). These new reflections allow direct access to the dipolar-quadrupolar E1E2 scattering channel. The theoretical possibility of observing isolated E1E2 electromagnetic multipoles has attracted a lot of interest in the recent years. Unfortunately in many system of interest, parity even and parity odd tensor contributions occur at the same positions in reciprocal space. We demonstrate that in Ca3Co2O6 it is possible to completely separate the parity even from the parity odd terms. The possibility of observing such terms even in globally centrosymmetric systems using RXS has been investigated theoretically; Ca3Co2O6 allows a symmetry based separation of this contribution.