Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering of LaCuNiO

Ishii, Kenji; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Jarrige, I.; Mizuki, Junichiro; Hiraka, Haruhiro*; Yamada, Kazuyoshi*; Tsutsui, Kenji; Toyama, Takami*; Maekawa, Sadamichi*; Endo, Yasuo*; Ishii, Hirofumi*; Cai, Y. Q.*

Substitution of a specific element for a component is often used to elucidate its role in the superconductors. For a complete understanding of the substitution effect not only on the superconductivity but also on the electronic states, element-selective experiments are required. In this respect, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) has proven to be a powerful experimental technique enabling element-selective diagnosis of charge excitations. By tuning the incident photon energy to a given absorption edge of the element, the excitations involving the element are resonantly enhanced. In addition, RIXS has the advantage that momentum dependence can be measured. Using RIXS, we have measured the electronic excitations at the substituting sites in LaCuNiO and LaNiCuO. Near the absorption edge of the substituting element, namely the Ni -edge for LaCuNiO and the Cu -edge for LaNiCuO, charge transfer excitations from the 2 level of neighboring oxygen to the upper Hubbard band of the substituted Ni/Cu are observed. Experimental spectra are qualitatively reproduced by a theoretical calculation based on a - model.