- Kuo, Cheng-Tai;
- Lin, Shih-Chieh;
- Ghiringhelli, Giacomo;
- Peng, Yingying;
- De Luca, Gabriella Maria;
- Di Castro, Daniele;
- Betto, Davide;
- Gehlmann, Mathias;
- Wijnands, Tom;
- Huijben, Mark;
- Meyer-Ilse, Julia;
- Gullikson, Eric;
- Kortright, Jeffrey B;
- Vailionis, Arturas;
- Gauquelin, Nicolas;
- Verbeeck, Johan;
- Gerber, Timm;
- Balestrino, Giuseppe;
- Brookes, Nicholas B;
- Braicovich, Lucio;
- Fadley, Charles S
We demonstrate that combining standing wave (SW) excitation with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) can lead to depth resolution and interface sensitivity for studying orbital and magnetic excitations in correlated oxide heterostructures. SW-RIXS has been applied to multilayer heterostructures consisting of a superconductor La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 (LSCO) and a half-metallic ferromagnet La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO). Easily observable SW effects on the RIXS excitations were found in these LSCO/LSMO multilayers. In addition, we observe different depth distribution of the RIXS excitations. The magnetic excitations are found to arise from the LSCO/LSMO interfaces, and there is also a suggestion that one of the dd excitations comes from the interfaces. SW-RIXS measurements of correlated-oxide and other multilayer heterostructures should provide unique layer-resolved insights concerning their orbital and magnetic excitations, as well as a challenge for RIXS theory to specifically deal with interface effects.