High resolution resonant inelastic EUV scattering from orbital excitations in a Heisenberg antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution resonant inelastic EUV scattering to investigate orbital and spin excitations in the Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCoF3, revealing detailed electronic excitations and their temperature-dependent behavior related to magnetic order.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of low-energy 3d spin-orbital excitations in KCoF3 using EUV scattering and models their behavior with multiplet calculations, highlighting the impact of magnetic order.

Findings

Revealed low-energy 3d spin-orbital excitations in KCoF3.

Demonstrated temperature dependence of RIXS features across the antiferromagnetic transition.

Probed short-range spin correlations through RIXS spectral analysis.

Abstract

We report the high resolution resonant inelastic EUV scattering study of quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCoF3. By tuning the EUV photon energy to cobalt M23 edge, a complete set of low energy 3d spin-orbital excitations is revealed. These low-lying electronic excitations are modeled using an extended multiplet-based mean field calculation to identify the roles of lattice and magnetic degrees of freedom in modifying the RIXS spectral lineshape. We have demonstrated that the temperature dependence of RIXS features upon the antiferromagnetic ordering transition enables us to probe the energetics of short-range spin correlations in this material.