Resonant Elastic Soft X-Ray Scattering

TL;DR

Resonant elastic soft x-ray scattering (RSXS) is a versatile technique that probes electronic order and structure in complex materials, thin films, and interfaces with element and valence specificity, advancing understanding of condensed matter.

Contribution

This review summarizes recent developments in RSXS technology and its application to study electronic ordering phenomena in correlated systems and heterostructures.

Findings

RSXS provides element-specific insights into charge, spin, and orbital order.

Advances in experimental equipment have enhanced RSXS capabilities.

RSXS has been successfully applied to study electronic phenomena at buried interfaces.

Abstract

Resonant (elastic) soft x-ray scattering (RSXS) offers a unique element, site, and valence specific probe to study spatial modulations of charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom in solids on the nanoscopic length scale. It cannot only be used to investigate single crystalline materials. This method also enables to examine electronic ordering phenomena in thin films and to zoom into electronic properties emerging at buried interfaces in artificial heterostructures. During the last 20 years, this technique, which combines x-ray scattering with x-ray absorption spectroscopy, has developed into a powerful probe to study electronic ordering phenomena in complex materials and furthermore delivers important information on the electronic structure of condensed matter. This review provides an introduction to the technique, covers the progress in experimental equipment, and gives a survey on recent RSXS studies of ordering in correlated electron systems and at interfaces.