High-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the electron-phonon coupling in honeycomb alpha-Li2IrO3

Journal article

The excitations in honeycomb α-Li2IrO3 have been investigated with high-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the O K edge. The low-energy response is dominated by a fully resolved ladder of excitations, which we interpret as being due to multiphonon processes in the presence of strong electron-phonon coupling (EPC). At higher energies, the orbital excitations are shown to be dressed by phonons. The high quality of the data permits a quantitative test of the analytical model for the RIXS cross section, which has been proposed to describe EPC in transition-metal oxides (TMOs). We find that the magnitude of the EPC is comparable to that found for a range of 3d TMOs. This indicates that EPC may be of equal importance in determining the phenomenology displayed by corresponding 5d-based systems.

Authors: Vale, JG; Dashwood, CD; Paris, E; Veiga, LSI; Garcia-Fernandez, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Volume: 100
• Issue: 22
• Article number: 224303
• Publication date: 2019-12-18
• Acceptance date: 2019-11-15
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.100.224303
• EISSN: 2469-9969
• ISSN: 2469-9950
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR