Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 169, 199-205 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2009-00993-8

Crystal field and low energy excitations measured by high resolution RIXS at the L₁₂₁₂₃ edge of Cu, Ni and Mn

¹ CNR-INFM Coherentia and Soft, Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
² Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, École Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
³ Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, ETH Zurich and Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
⁴ Materials Research Department, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
⁵ Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

Corresponding author: giacomo.ghiringhelli@fisi.polimi.it

Abstract

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in the soft x-ray regime has been profiting much from technical advances that have lowered considerably the instrumental linewidth. At the ADRESS beam line of the Swiss Light Source the SAXES spectrometer can be used to measure RIXS spectra at the L edges of the 3d transition metals with unprecedented energy resolution, of the order of 100 meV for Mn, Ni and Cu. We present here some preliminary spectra on CuO, malachite, NiO, NiCl₂, MnO and LaMnO₃. The dd excitations are very well resolved allowing accurate experimental evaluation of 3d state energy splitting. The low energy scale becomes accessible opening the way to the study of collective excitations in strongly correlated electron systems, like magnons and orbitons.