Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering of Iron-based Superconductors

• Grant number: 25/03823-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Assis Garcia
• Grantee: Leonardo Donatello da Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/13291-8 - Disentangling Electronic excitations in Hund Metals, AP.R

Abstract

Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) is a specific technique for investigating the electronic structure of solid-state systems. RIXS also allows the observation of collective properties of electronic excitations, such as collective spin excitations (magnons and paramagnons) and charge excitations (such as particle-hole excitations). In the context of iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), RIXS has proven to be an important tool for the characterization of spin excitations and, consequently, for understanding the relationship between these excitations and high-temperature superconductivity in this family of materials. RIXS is also fundamental in the context of the normal state nature of these materials and contributes to a central topic in our project, which is the study of Hund's metals. In this work plan, we propose the RIXS investigation of spin excitations in Ni-doped BaFe2As2, or Ba(Fe_1-xNix)2As2. This study addresses a sector of the FeSCs phase diagram that remains unexplored by RIXS.