Large magnetic circular dichroism in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Mn L-edge of Mn-Zn ferrite

TL;DR

This study demonstrates large magnetic circular dichroism in RIXS at the Mn L-edge of Mn-Zn ferrite, revealing insights into the localized electronic states and spin-lattice interactions in insulating ferrite materials.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of RIXS dichroism in Mn-Zn ferrite, highlighting the dominance of crystal field excitations and the effects of core hole screening and relaxation processes.

Findings

Large dichroic RIXS observed at the L2-resonance due to absence of metallic screening.

Reduced L3-RIXS dichroism attributed to spin-lattice relaxation via magnons and phonons.

Crystal field excitations dominate the RIXS spectra, indicating localized electronic states.

Abstract

We report resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) excited by circularly polarized x-rays on Mn-Zn ferrite at the Mn L2,3-resonances. We demonstrate that crystal field excitations, as expected for localized systems, dominate the RIXS spectra and thus their dichroic asymmetry cannot be interpreted in terms of spin-resolved partial density of states, which has been the standard approach for RIXS dichroism. We observe large dichroic RIXS at the L2-resonance which we attribute to the absence of metallic core hole screening in the insulating Mn-ferrite. On the other hand, reduced L3-RIXS dichroism is interpreted as an effect of longer scattering time that enables spin-lattice core hole relaxation via magnons and phonons occurring on a femtosecond time scale.