We present a comprehensive study of the temperature and doping dependence of the 500 meV peak observed at ${bf q}=(pi,0)$ in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments on $rm La_2CuO_4$. The intensity of this peak persists above the Neel
temperature (T$_{N}$=320 K), but decreases gradually with increasing temperature, reaching zero at around T=500 K. The peak energy decreases with temperature in close quantitative accord with the behavior of the two-magnon $rm B_{1g}$ Raman peak in $rm La_2CuO_4$, and with suitable rescaling, agrees with the Raman peak shifts in $rm EuBa_2Cu_3O_6$ and $rm K_2NiF_4$. The overall dispersion of this excitation in the Brillouin zone is found to be in agreement with theoretical calculations for a two-magnon excitation. Upon doping, the peak intensity decreases analogous to the Raman mode intensity and appears to track the doping dependence of the spin correlation length. Taken together, these observations strongly suggest that the 500 meV mode is magnetic in character and is likely a two-magnon excitation.
The coupling of multiple degrees of freedom - charge, spin, and lattice - in manganites has mostly been considered at the microscopic level. However, on larger length scales, these correlations may be affected by strain and disorder, which can lead t
o short range order in these phases and affect the coupling between them. To better understand these effects, we explore the dynamics of orbitally ordered domains in a half-doped manganite near the orbital ordering phase transition. Our results suggest that the domains are largely static, and exhibit only slow fluctuations near domain boundaries.
We report a high-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of La2CuO4. A number of spectral features are identified that were not clearly visible in earlier lower-resolution data. The momentum dependence of the spectral weight and the disp
ersion of the lowest energy excitation across the insulating gap have been measured in detail. The temperature dependence of the spectral features was also examined. The observed charge transfer edge shift, along with the low dispersion of the first charge transfer excitation are attributed to the lattice motion being coupled to the electronic system. In addition, we observe a dispersionless feature at 1.8 eV, which is associated with a d-d crystal field excitation.
We report the observation of superstructures associated with the oxygen 2p-states in two prototypical manganites using x-ray diffraction at the oxygen K-edge. We determine the nature of the orderings and discuss our picture with respect to novel theo
retical models. In the stripe order system Bi0.31 Ca0.69 MnO3, hole-doped O states are found to be orbitally ordered, at the same propagation vector as the Mn orbital ordering, but no evidence is found to support a picture of oxygen charge stripes at this periodicity. In La 7/8 Sr 1/8 MnO3, we observe a 2p charge ordering described by alternating hole-poor and hole-rich MnO planes that is consistent with recent predictions.
