Multiple-magnon excitations shape the spin spectrum of cuprate parent compounds

Letter

Multiple-magnon excitations shape the spin spectrum of cuprate parent compounds

Davide Betto, Roberto Fumagalli, Leonardo Martinelli, Matteo Rossi, Riccardo Piombo, Kazuyoshi Yoshimi, Daniele Di Castro, Emiliano Di Gennaro, Alessia Sambri, Doug Bonn, George A. Sawatzky, Lucio Braicovich, Nicholas B. Brookes, José Lorenzana, and Giacomo Ghiringhelli

Phys. Rev. B 103, L140409 – Published 26 April 2021

Abstract

Thanks to high resolution and polarization analysis, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) magnetic spectra of ${La}_{2} {CuO}_{4}$ , ${Sr}_{2} {CuO}_{2} C_{l 2}$ and ${CaCuO}_{2}$ reveal a rich set of properties of the spin- $1 / 2$ antiferromagnetic square lattice of cuprates. The leading single-magnon peak energy dispersion is in excellent agreement with the corresponding inelastic neutron scattering measurements. However, the RIXS data unveil an asymmetric line shape possibly due to odd higher order terms. Moreover, a sharp bimagnon feature emerges from the continuum at $(1 / 2, 0)$ , coincident in energy with the bimagnon peak detected in optical spectroscopy. These findings show that the inherently complex spin spectra of cuprates, an exquisite manifestation of quantum magnetism, can be effectively explored by exploiting the richness of RIXS cross sections.

Received 8 February 2021
Revised 14 April 2021
Accepted 16 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.L140409

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Antiferromagnetism Magnons Superconducting fluctuations Superconducting phase transition

Cuprates High-temperature superconductors

Density functional calculations Methods in superconductivity Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Davide Betto^1,*, Roberto Fumagalli², Leonardo Martinelli ², Matteo Rossi ², Riccardo Piombo ³, Kazuyoshi Yoshimi ⁴, Daniele Di Castro^5,6, Emiliano Di Gennaro^7,8, Alessia Sambri⁸, Doug Bonn⁹, George A. Sawatzky⁹, Lucio Braicovich¹, Nicholas B. Brookes¹, José Lorenzana ^3,†, and Giacomo Ghiringhelli ^2,10,‡

¹European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B.P. 220, 38043 Grenoble, France
²Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ISC-CNR and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy
⁴The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
⁵Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ingegneria Informatica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
⁶CNR-SPIN, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
⁷Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Pancini”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Complesso Monte Sant'Angelo via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
⁸CNR-SPIN, Complesso Monte Sant'Angelo via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
⁹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
¹⁰CNR-SPIN, Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

^*davide.betto@esrf.fr
^†jose.lorenzana@cnr.it
^‡giacomo.ghiringhelli@polimi.it

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 14 — 1 April 2021

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