Polarization-dependent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering study at the Cu L and O K-edge of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$

Abstract

We present a study on the high-Tc superconductor (HTSC) YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) using polarization-dependent X-ray absorption and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering. High-resolution measurements using synchrotron-radiation are compared with calculations using a quasi-atomic multiplet approach performed at the Cu 2p3/2-edge of YBCO. We use a multiplet approach within the single impurity Anderson model to reproduce and understand the character of the localized low-energy excitations in YBCO. We observe a distinct peak at about 0.5 eV in O K RIXS. This peak shows dependence on doping, incident energy, and momentum transfer that suggests that it has a different origin than the previously discussed cuprate bi-magnons. Therefore, we assign it to multi-magnon excitations between the Zhang Rice bands and/or the Upper Hubbard bands, respectively.