Insight on Hole-Hole Interaction and Magnetic Order from Dichroic Auger-Photoelectron Coincidence Spectra

TL;DR

This paper combines experimental and theoretical methods to analyze dichroic Auger-photoelectron coincidence spectra in CoO, revealing how magnetic order influences electron interactions and spectral features, and demonstrating a new way to probe magnetic correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combined experimental-theoretical approach to understand dichroic effects in Auger spectra of magnetic materials, highlighting the spin-dependent angular distribution as a key factor.

Findings

Dichroic effect arises from spin-dependent angular distribution of electron pairs.

The technique detects magnetic phase transitions via local spectral effects.

Theoretical spectral features match experimental data, elucidating magnetic correlations.

Abstract

The absence of sharp structures in the core-valence-valence Auger line shapes of partially filled bands has severely limited the use of electron spectroscopy in magnetic crystals and other correlated materials. Here by a novel interplay of experimental and theoretical techniques we achieve a combined understanding of the Photoelectron, Auger %$M_{23}M_{45}M_{45}$ and Auger-Photoelectron Coincidence Spectra (APECS) of CoO. This is a prototype antiferromagnetic material in which the recently discovered Dichroic Effect in Angle Resolved (DEAR) APECS reveals a complex pattern in the strongly correlated Auger line shape. A calculation of the \textit{unrelaxed} spectral features explains the pattern in detail, labeling the final states by the total spin. The present theoretical analysis shows that the dichroic effect arises from a spin-dependence of the angular distribution of the photoelectron-Auger electron pair detected in coincidence, and from the selective power of the dichroic technique in assigning different weights to the various spin components. Since the spin-dependence of the angular distribution exists in the antiferromagnetic state but vanishes at the N\'eel temperature, the DEAR-APECS technique detects the phase transition from its local effects, thus providing a unique tool to observe and understand magnetic correlations in such circumstances, where the usual methods (neutron diffraction, specific heat measurements) are not applicable.