Orbital-selective electronic excitations in iron arsenides revealed by simulated nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NIXS) can detect orbital-selective electronic excitations in iron arsenides, offering a new method to study multi-orbital electron systems.

Contribution

It shows that high-momentum-transfer NIXS can reveal orbital-specific excitations in iron arsenides, highlighting its potential as a complementary tool to resonant scattering.

Findings

Orbital-selective excitations are detectable by NIXS in iron arsenides.

Appropriate momentum transfer enables observation of orbital-specific features.

NIXS and resonant scattering together enhance understanding of orbital excitations.

Abstract

Nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NIXS) is a possible tool to detect charge excitations in electron systems. In addition, multipole transitions at high-momentum-transfer region open a new possibility to determine orbital-selective electronic excitations in multi-orbital itinerant 3d electron systems. As a theoretical example, we chose the antiferromagnetic state of iron arsenides and demonstrate that the orbital-selective excitations are detectable by choosing appropriate momentum transfer in NIXS. We propose that both NIXS and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering are complementary to each other for fully understanding the nature of orbital excitations in multi-orbital itinerant electron systems.