High-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the electron-phonon coupling in honeycomb alpha-Li2IrO3

High-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the electron-phonon coupling in honeycomb alpha-Li2IrO3

The excitations in honeycomb α-Li2IrO3 have been investigated with high-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the O K edge. The low-energy response is dominated by a fully resolved ladder of excitations, which we interpret as being due to multiphonon processes in the presence of s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vale, JG, Dashwood, CD, Paris, E, Veiga, LSI, Garcia-Fernandez, M, Nag, A, Walters, A, Zhou, K-J, Pietsch, I-M, Jesche, A, Gegenwart, P, Coldea, R, Schmitt, T, McMorrow, DF
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2019
Description
Summary:The excitations in honeycomb α-Li2IrO3 have been investigated with high-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the O K edge. The low-energy response is dominated by a fully resolved ladder of excitations, which we interpret as being due to multiphonon processes in the presence of strong electron-phonon coupling (EPC). At higher energies, the orbital excitations are shown to be dressed by phonons. The high quality of the data permits a quantitative test of the analytical model for the RIXS cross section, which has been proposed to describe EPC in transition-metal oxides (TMOs). We find that the magnitude of the EPC is comparable to that found for a range of 3d TMOs. This indicates that EPC may be of equal importance in determining the phenomenology displayed by corresponding 5d-based systems.

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