Probing strongly correlated 4-orbital symmetry of the ground state in Yb compounds by linear dichroism in core-level photoemission

Mori, Takeo*; Kitayama, Satoshi*; Kanai, Yuina*; Naimen, Sho*; Fujiwara, Hidenori*; Higashiya, Atsushi*; Tamasaku, Kenji*; Tanaka, Arata*; Terashima, Kensei*; Imada, Shin*; Yasui, Akira*; Saito, Yuji  ; Yamagami, Kohei*; Yano, Kohei*; Matsumoto, Taiki*; Kiss, Takayuki*; Yabashi, Makina*; Ishikawa, Tetsuya*; Suga, Shigemasa*; Onuki, Yoshichika*; Ebihara, Takao*; Sekiyama, Akira*

We show that the strongly correlated 4-orbital symmetry of the ground state is revealed by linear dichroism in core-level photoemission spectra, as we have discovered for YbRhSi and YbCuSi. Theoretical analysis shows us that the linear dichroism reflects the anisotropic charge distributions resulting from a crystalline electric field. We have successfully determined the ground-state 4 symmetry for both compounds from the polarization-dependent angle resolved core-level spectra at a temperature well below the first excitation energy. The excited-state symmetry is also probed by temperature dependence of the linear dichroism where the high measurement temperatures are on the order of the crystal-field-splitting energies.