Determining the Short-Range Spin Correlations in the Spin-Chain Li2CuO2 and CuGeO3 Compounds Using Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering

作者：Monney Claude^*; Bisogni Valentina; Zhou Ke Jin; Kraus Roberto; Strocov Vladimir N; Behr Guenter; Malek Jiri; Kuzian Roman; Drechsler Stefan Ludwig; Johnston Steve; Revcolevschi Alexandre; Buechner Bernd; Ronnow Henrik M; van den Brink Jeroen; Geck Jochen; Schmitt Thorsten

来源：Physical Review Letters, 2013, 110(8): 087403.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.087403

We report a high-resolution resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering study of the quantum magnetic spin-chain materials Li2CuO2 and CuGeO3. By tuning the incoming photon energy to the oxygen K edge, a strong excitation around 3.5 eV energy loss is clearly resolved for both materials. Comparing the experimental data to many-body calculations, we identify this excitation as a Zhang-Rice singlet exciton on neighboring CuO4 plaquettes. We demonstrate that the strong temperature dependence of the inelastic scattering related to this high-energy exciton enables us to probe short-range spin correlations on the 1 meV scale with outstanding sensitivity. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.087403

• 出版日期2013-2-20