On the extraction of paramagnon excitations from resonant inelastic X-ray scattering experiments

TL;DR

This paper critically re-examines resonant inelastic X-ray scattering data on high-temperature superconductors, revealing that previously identified paramagnon excitations may not be well-defined or propagating, challenging prior interpretations.

Contribution

It introduces a model-fitting approach free from restrictive assumptions, demonstrating that paramagnons are less well-defined and may not be propagating excitations as previously thought.

Findings

Paramagnons are less well-defined than previously claimed.

Some paramagnons may not be propagating excitations.

Previous data interpretations need re-analysis with proper models.

Abstract

Resonant X-ray scattering experiments on high-temperature superconductors and related cuprates have revealed the presence of intense paramagnon scattering at high excitation energies, of the order of several hundred meV. The excitation energies appear to show very similar behavior across all compounds, ranging from magnetically ordered, via superconductors, to heavy fermion systems. However, we argue that this apparent behavior has been inferred from the data through model fitting which implicitly imposes such similarities. Using model fitting that is free from such restrictions, we show that the paramagnons are not nearly as well-defined as has been asserted previously, and that some paramagnons might not represent propagating excitations at all. Our work indicates that the data published previously in the literature will need to be re-analyzed with proper models.