U 5f crystal-field ground state of UO2 probed by directional dichroism in nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering
Abstract
Nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NIXS) has been performed on single crystals of UO2 to study the direction dependence of higher-order-multipole scattering from the uranium O4,5 edges (90--110 eV). By comparing the experimental results with theoretical calculations the symmetry of the ground state is confirmed directly as the crystal-field (CF) 5 triplet state within the J = 4 manifold. The results also demonstrate that the directional dichroism of the NIXS spectra is sensitive to the CF strength and establish NIXS as a tool for probing CF interactions quantitatively.
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