Spin-Orbit-Induced Orbital Excitations in Sr2RuO4 and Ca2RuO4: A Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering Study

2015/03/31 by C. G. Fatuzzo, M. Dantz, S. Fatale +14 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.str-el

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.91.155104

published as Phys. Rev. B 91, 155104 (2015) · accepted in PRB 2015

arxiv created 2015/04/07 · arxiv updated 2015/04/08

Abstract

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 λ_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.

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