Publication Date:
2017-07-21
Description:
Author(s): D. Betto, Y. Y. Peng, S. B. Porter, G. Berti, A. Calloni, G. Ghiringhelli, and N. B. Brookes The authors have investigated the dispersion of magnetic excitations in thin films of antiferromagnetic NiO using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the L 3 edge of nickel. They demonstrate here that, thanks to the recent improvements in energy resolution and scattering geometry, soft x-ray RIXS is a valid complement to inelastic neutron scattering in this field because it allows a clear identification of the spin-wave peaks not only in bulk crystals but also in thin films and heterostructures too small for neutron studies. Moreover, the spin-wave dispersion measured along three high-symmetry directions of the 3D fcc Brillouin zone allows an accurate determination of the main super-exchange integral J ′ that establishes the antiferromagnetic structure of NiO. This report demonstrates definitively that RIXS is not confined to 2D materials such as cuprates and can be a useful tool for the study of magnetic interaction in a wide class of 3 d transition metal systems. [Phys. Rev. B 96, 020409(R)] Published Thu Jul 20, 2017
Keywords:
Magnetism
Print ISSN:
1098-0121
Electronic ISSN:
1095-3795
Topics:
Physics
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