Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in the topological semimetal FeSi

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Shen, Yao, Chandrasekaran, Anirudh, Sears, Jennifer, Zhang, Tiantian, Han, Xin, Shi, Youguo, Li, Jiemin, Pelliciari, Jonathan, Bisogni, Valentina, Dean, Mark P. M., Kourtis, Stefanos
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Shen, Yao
Chandrasekaran, Anirudh
Sears, Jennifer
Zhang, Tiantian
Han, Xin
Shi, Youguo
Li, Jiemin
Pelliciari, Jonathan
Bisogni, Valentina
Dean, Mark P. M.
Kourtis, Stefanos
author_facet Shen, Yao
Chandrasekaran, Anirudh
Sears, Jennifer
Zhang, Tiantian
Han, Xin
Shi, Youguo
Li, Jiemin
Pelliciari, Jonathan
Bisogni, Valentina
Dean, Mark P. M.
Kourtis, Stefanos
contents The energy spectrum of topological semimetals contains protected degeneracies in reciprocal space that correspond to Weyl, Dirac, or multifold fermionic states. To exploit the unconventional properties of these states, one has to access the electronic structure of the three-dimensional bulk. In this work, we present the first joint theory-experiment study of the electronic structure of a candidate topological semimetal with resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). We resolve the bulk electronic states of FeSi using momentum-dependent RIXS at the Fe $L_3$ edge. We observe a broad excitation continuum devoid of sharp features, consistent with particle-hole scattering in an underlying electronic band structure. Using density functional theory (DFT), we calculate the electronic structure of FeSi and derive a band theory formulation of RIXS in the fast collision approximation to model the scattering process with zero adjustable parameters. While band theory predicts an excitation continuum with broad spectral features similar to the observed ones, discrepancies between theory and experiment suggest the presence of low-energy processes that DFT alone does not account for. This first study of RIXS in a topological semimetal shows that RIXS is a useful tool for revealing unanticipated behavior of bulk electronic states in this class of materials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2301_02677
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in the topological semimetal FeSi
Shen, Yao
Chandrasekaran, Anirudh
Sears, Jennifer
Zhang, Tiantian
Han, Xin
Shi, Youguo
Li, Jiemin
Pelliciari, Jonathan
Bisogni, Valentina
Dean, Mark P. M.
Kourtis, Stefanos
Strongly Correlated Electrons
The energy spectrum of topological semimetals contains protected degeneracies in reciprocal space that correspond to Weyl, Dirac, or multifold fermionic states. To exploit the unconventional properties of these states, one has to access the electronic structure of the three-dimensional bulk. In this work, we present the first joint theory-experiment study of the electronic structure of a candidate topological semimetal with resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). We resolve the bulk electronic states of FeSi using momentum-dependent RIXS at the Fe $L_3$ edge. We observe a broad excitation continuum devoid of sharp features, consistent with particle-hole scattering in an underlying electronic band structure. Using density functional theory (DFT), we calculate the electronic structure of FeSi and derive a band theory formulation of RIXS in the fast collision approximation to model the scattering process with zero adjustable parameters. While band theory predicts an excitation continuum with broad spectral features similar to the observed ones, discrepancies between theory and experiment suggest the presence of low-energy processes that DFT alone does not account for. This first study of RIXS in a topological semimetal shows that RIXS is a useful tool for revealing unanticipated behavior of bulk electronic states in this class of materials.
title Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in the topological semimetal FeSi
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.02677