Momentum-dependent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the Si K edge of 3C-SiC: A theoretical study on a relation between spectra and valence band dispersion

TL;DR

This theoretical study shows that momentum-dependent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Si K edge can effectively probe valence band dispersion in broad band materials, exemplified by 3C-SiC.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates, through ab initio calculations, that RIXS spectra depend on transferred momentum and polarization, enabling extraction of valence band dispersion information.

Findings

RIXS spectra vary significantly with momentum transfer and polarization.

Peaks in RIXS spectra correspond to valence band energies.

Momentum dependence of RIXS can reveal valence band dispersion.

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate that a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) with a sizable momentum transfer can be utilized to study valence band dispersion for broad band materials. We take RIXS at the Si K edge of 3C-SiC as a typical example. The RIXS spectra are calculated by systematically changing the transferred momentum, an incident photon polarization and an incident photon energy, on the basis of an ab initio calculation. We find that the spectra depend heavily on both the transferred momentum and the incident photon polarization, and the peaks in the spectra correspond to the energies of the valence bands. We conclude that the information on the energy dispersion of valence bands can be extracted from the transferred momentum dependence of the RIXS spectra. These findings lead to further application for RIXS when investigating the band structure of broad band materials.