Spectrum splitting of bimagnon excitations in a spatially frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet revealed by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Abstract

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the bimagnon resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) intensity spectra of the spatially frustrated Jx-Jy-J2 Heisenberg model on a square lattice in both the antiferromagnetic and the collinear antiferromagnetic phase. We study the model for strong frustration and significant spatial anisotropy to highlight the key signatures of RIXS spectrum splitting which may be experimentally discernible. Based on an interacting spin wave theory study within the ladder approximation Bethe-Salpeter scheme, we find the appearance of a robust two-peak structure over a wide range of the transferred momenta in both magnetically ordered phases. The unfrustrated model has a single-peak structure with a two-peak splitting originating due to spatial anisotropy and frustrated interactions. Our predicted two-peak structure from both magnetically ordered regime can be realized in iron pnictides.