9 research outputs found
Electronic and magnetic excitations in the "half-stuffed" Cu--O planes of BaCuOCl measured by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
We use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Cu L edge to
measure the charge and spin excitations in the "half-stuffed" Cu--O planes of
the cuprate antiferromagnet BaCuOCl. The RIXS line shape
reveals distinct contributions to the excitations from the two
structurally inequivalent Cu sites, which have different out-of-plane
coordinations. The low-energy response exhibits magnetic excitations. We find a
spin-wave branch whose dispersion follows the symmetry of a CuO sublattice,
similar to the case of the "fully-stuffed" planes of tetragonal CuO (T-CuO).
Its bandwidth is closer to that of a typical cuprate material, such as
SrCuOCl, than it is to that of T-CuO. We interpret this result as
arising from the absence of the effective four-spin inter-sublattice
interactions that act to reduce the bandwidth in T-CuO.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Spin-Orbit-Induced Orbital Excitations in Sr2RuO4 and Ca2RuO4: A Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering Study
High-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the oxygen
K-edge has been used to study the orbital excitations of Ca2RuO4 and Sr2RuO4.
In combination with linear dichroism X-ray absorption spectroscopy, the
ruthenium 4d-orbital occupation and excitations were probed through their
hybridization with the oxygen p-orbitals. These results are described within a
minimal model, taking into account crystal field splitting and a spin-orbit
coupling \lambda_{so}=200~meV. The effects of spin-orbit interaction on the
electronic structure and implications for the Mott and superconducting ground
states of (Ca,Sr)2RuO4 are discussed.Comment: accepted in PRB 201
Magnons in tetragonal CuO
We investigate by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering the magnetic excitations in thin films of tetragonal CuO. We identify a spin wave excitation, dispersing on two cupratelike antiferromagnetic sublattices. Its energy at the boundary of the Brillouin zone (220 meV), is significantly lower than typical values (E ∼300 meV) found in two-dimensional cuprates. A spin wave expansion starting from an extended Hubbard model suggests two possible scenarios for this energy lowering