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    Energy and symmetry of dd excitations in undoped layered cuprates measured By Cu L3 resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
    (Bristol : IOP, 2011) Moretti Sala, M.; Bisogni, V.; Aruta, C.; Balestrino, G.; Berger, H.; Brookes, N.B.; De Luca, G.M.; Di Castro, D.; Grioni, M.; Guarise, M.; Medaglia, P.G.; Miletto, Granozio, F.; Minola, M.; Perna, P.; Radovic, M.; Salluzzo, M.; Schmitt, T.; Zhou, K.J.; Braicovich, L.; Ghiringhelli, G.
    We measured the high-resolution Cu L3 edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) of undoped cuprates La2CuO4, Sr2CuO2Cl2, CaCuO2 and NdBa 2Cu3O6. The dominant spectral features were assigned to dd excitations and we extensively studied their polarization and scattering geometry dependence. In a pure ionic picture, we calculated the theoretical cross sections for those excitations and used these to fit the experimental data with excellent agreement. By doing so, we were able to determine the energy and symmetry of Cu-3d states for the four systems with unprecedented accuracy and confidence. The values of the effective parameters could be obtained for the singleion crystal field model but not for a simple two-dimensional cluster model. The firm experimental assessment of dd excitation energies carries important consequences for the physics of high-Tc superconductors. On the one hand, we found that the minimum energy of orbital excitation is always ≥ 1.4 eV, i.e. well above the mid-infrared spectral range, which leaves to magnetic excitations (up to 300 meV) a major role in Cooper pairing in cuprates. On the other hand, it has become possible to study quantitatively the effective influence of dd excitations on the superconducting gap in cuprates.
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    Quantum chemical insights into hexaboride electronic structures: correlations within the boron p-orbital subsystem
    (London : Springer Nature, 2022) Petersen, Thorben; Rößler, Ulrich K.; Hozoi, Liviu
    The notion of strong electronic correlations arose in the context of d-metal oxides such as NiO but can be exemplified on systems as simple as the H2 molecule. Here we shed light on correlation effects on B62− clusters as found in MB6 hexaborides and show that the B 2p valence electrons are fairly correlated. B6-octahedron excitation energies computed for CaB6 and YbB6 agree with peak positions found by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, providing a compelling picture for the latter. Our findings characterize these materials as very peculiar p-electron correlated systems and call for more involved many-body investigations within the whole hexaboride family, both alkaline- and rare-earth compounds, not only for N- but also (N ± 1)-states defining e. g. band gaps.
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    RIXS interferometry and the role of disorder in the quantum magnet Ba3 Ti3-x Irx O9
    (College Park, MD : APS, 2023) Magnaterra, M.; Moretti Sala, M.; Monaco, G.; Becker, P.; Hermanns, M.; Warzanowski, P.; Lorenz, T.; Khomskii, D. I.; van Loosdrecht, P. H. M.; van den Brink, J.; Grüninger, M.
    Motivated by several claims of spin-orbit-driven spin-liquid physics in hexagonal Ba3Ti3-xIrxO9 hosting Ir2O9 dimers, we report on resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Ir L3 edge for different x. We demonstrate that magnetism in Ba3Ti3-xIrxO9 is governed by an unconventional realization of strong disorder, where cation disorder affects the character of the local moments. RIXS interferometry, studying the RIXS intensity over a broad range of transferred momentum q, is ideally suited to assign different excitations to different Ir sites. We find pronounced Ir-Ti site mixing. Both ions are distributed over two crystallographically inequivalent sites, giving rise to a coexistence of quasimolecular singlet states on Ir2O9 dimers and spin-orbit-entangled j=1/2 moments of 5d5Ir4+ ions. RIXS reveals different kinds of strong magnetic couplings for different bonding geometries, highlighting the role of cation disorder for the suppression of long-range magnetic order in this family of compounds.
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    Resonant inelastic x-ray incarnation of Young’s double-slit experiment
    (Washington : American Association for the Advancement of Science (A A A S), 2019) Revelli, A.; Moretti, Sala, M.; Monaco, G.; Becker, P.; Bohatý, L.; Hermanns, M.; Koethe, T.C.; Fröhlich, T.; Warzanowski, P.; Lorenz, T.; Streltsov, S.V.; van Loosdrecht, P.H.M.; Khomskii, D.I.; van den Brink, J.; Grüninger, M.
    Young’s archetypal double-slit experiment forms the basis for modern diffraction techniques: The elastic scattering of waves yields an interference pattern that captures the real-space structure. Here, we report on an inelastic incarnation of Young’s experiment and demonstrate that resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) measures interference patterns, which reveal the symmetry and character of electronic excited states in the same way as elastic scattering does for the ground state. A prototypical example is provided by the quasi-molecular electronic structure of insulating Ba 3 CeIr 2 O 9 with structural Ir dimers and strong spin-orbit coupling. The double “slits” in this resonant experiment are the highly localized core levels of the two Ir atoms within a dimer. The clear double-slit-type sinusoidal interference patterns that we observe allow us to characterize the electronic excitations, demonstrating the power of RIXS interferometry to unravel the electronic structure of solids containing, e.g., dimers, trimers, ladders, or other superstructures.