Magnetic excitations in infinite-layer nickelates

H Lu; M Rossi; A Nag; M Osada; D F Li; K Lee; B Y Wang; M Garcia-Fernandez; S Agrestini; Z X Shen; E M Been; B Moritz; T P Devereaux; J Zaanen; H Y Hwang; Ke-Jin Zhou; W S Lee

doi:10.1126/science.abd7726

Magnetic excitations in infinite-layer nickelates

Science. 2021 Jul 9;373(6551):213-216. doi: 10.1126/science.abd7726.

Authors

H Lu^{1

2}, M Rossi¹, A Nag³, M Osada², D F Li¹, K Lee², B Y Wang², M Garcia-Fernandez³, S Agrestini³, Z X Shen^{1

2}, E M Been¹, B Moritz¹, T P Devereaux^{1

2

4}, J Zaanen⁵, H Y Hwang^{1

2}, Ke-Jin Zhou⁶, W S Lee⁷

Affiliations

¹ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
² Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Departments of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
³ Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁵ Instituut-Lorentz for theoretical Physics, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, Netherlands.
⁶ Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK. [email protected] [email protected].
⁷ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. [email protected] [email protected].

PMID: 34244413
DOI: 10.1126/science.abd7726

Abstract

The discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates brings us tantalizingly close to a material class that mirrors the cuprate superconductors. We measured the magnetic excitations in these nickelates using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Ni L ₃-edge. Undoped NdNiO₂ possesses a branch of dispersive excitations with a bandwidth of approximately 200 milli-electron volts, which is reminiscent of the spin wave of strongly coupled, antiferromagnetically aligned spins on a square lattice. The substantial damping of these modes indicates the importance of coupling to rare-earth itinerant electrons. Upon doping, the spectral weight and energy decrease slightly, whereas the modes become overdamped. Our results highlight the role of Mottness in infinite-layer nickelates.