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    Unraveling the Orbital Physics in a Canonical Orbital System KCuF3
    (College Park, Md. : APS, 2021) Li, Jiemin; Xu, Lei; Garcia-Fernandez, Mirian; Nag, Abhishek; Robarts, H.C.; Walters, A.C.; Liu, X.; Zhou, Jianshi; Wohlfeld, Krzysztof; van den Brink, Jeroen; Ding, Hong; Zhou, Ke-Jin
    We explore the existence of the collective orbital excitations, orbitons, in the canonical orbital system KCuF3 using the Cu L3-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. We show that the nondispersive high-energy peaks result from the Cu2+  dd orbital excitations. These high-energy modes display good agreement with the ab initio quantum chemistry calculation, indicating that the dd excitations are highly localized. At the same time, the low-energy excitations present clear dispersion. They match extremely well with the two-spinon continuum following the comparison with Müller ansatz calculations. The localized dd excitations and the observation of the strongly dispersive magnetic excitations suggest that the orbiton dispersion is below the resolution detection limit. Our results can reconcile with the strong local Jahn-Teller effect in KCuF3, which predominantly drives orbital ordering.
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    Attosecond electron thermalization in laser-induced nonsequential multiple ionization: Hard versus glancing collisions
    (College Park, MD : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2008) Liu, X.; De Morisson Faria, C.F.; Becker, W.
    A recollision-based largely classical statistical model of laser-induced nonsequential multiple (N-fold) ionization of atoms is further explored. Upon its return to the ionic core, the first-ionized electron interacts with the other N - 1 bound electrons either through a contact or a Coulomb interaction. The returning electron may leave either immediately after this interaction or join the other electrons to form a thermalized complex which leaves the ion after the delay Δt, which is the sum of a thermalization time and a possible additional dwell time. Good agreement with the available triple and quadruple ionization data in neon and argon is obtained with the contact scenario and delays of Δt = 0.17 T and 0.265 T, respectively, with T the laser period. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
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    Electronic properties of intercalated single-wall carbon nanotubes and C60 peapods
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2003) Pichler, T.; Liu, X.; Knupfer, M.; Fink, J.
    This paper reviews recent investigations of the electronic structure and the optical properties of intercalated single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and C60 filled SWCNTs (peapods) using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in transmission as a probe. The results from these one-dimensional nanostructures are compared to C60 fullerides and intercalated graphite, which are well understood prototypes of carbon-based intercalation compounds. In detail, the structural changes were analysed by electron diffraction and the doping level and the matrix element weighted unoccupied density of states (DOS) by an analysis of the C 1s core-level excitations. Regarding the optical properties, the intercalation gives rise to a charge transfer to the peapods (SWCNTs) which leads to the formation of a free charge carrier plasmon in the loss function which is analysed within the framework of an effective Drude–Lorentz model.
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    Transient magnetic gratings on the nanometer scale
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2020) Weder, D.; von Korff Schmising, C.; Günther, C.M.; Schneider, M.; Engel, D.; Hessing, P.; Strüber, C.; Weigand, M.; Vodungbo, B.; Jal, E.; Liu, X.; Merhe, A.; Pedersoli, E.; Capotondi, F.; Lüning, J.; Pfau, B.; Eisebitt, S.
    Laser-driven non-local electron dynamics in ultrathin magnetic samples on a sub-10 nm length scale is a key process in ultrafast magnetism. However, the experimental access has been challenging due to the nanoscopic and femtosecond nature of such transport processes. Here, we present a scattering-based experiment relying on a laser-induced electro- and magneto-optical grating in a Co/Pd ferromagnetic multilayer as a new technique to investigate non-local magnetization dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond timescales. We induce a spatially modulated excitation pattern using tailored Al near-field masks with varying periodicities on a nanometer length scale and measure the first four diffraction orders in an x-ray scattering experiment with magnetic circular dichroism contrast at the free-electron laser facility FERMI, Trieste. The design of the periodic excitation mask leads to a strongly enhanced and characteristic transient scattering response allowing for sub-wavelength in-plane sensitivity for magnetic structures. In conjunction with scattering simulations, the experiment allows us to infer that a potential ultrafast lateral expansion of the initially excited regions of the magnetic film mediated by hot-electron transport and spin transport remains confined to below three nanometers.