4fexcitations in Ce Kondo lattices studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Abstract

The potential of resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering to measure $4f$ crystal electric-field excitation spectra in Ce Kondo lattices has been examined. Spectra have been obtained for several Ce systems and show a well-defined structure determined by crystal-field, spin-orbit, and charge-transfer excitations only. The spectral shapes of the excitation spectra can be well understood in the framework of atomic multiplet calculations. For ${\mathrm{CeCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ we found notable disagreement between the inelastic x-ray-scattering spectra and theoretical calculations when using the crystal-field scheme proposed from inelastic neutron scattering. Modified sets of crystal-field parameters yield better agreement. Our results also show that, with the very recent improvements of soft x-ray spectrometers in resolution to below 30 meV at the Ce ${M}_{4,5}$ edges, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering could be an ideal tool to determine the crystal-field scheme in Ce Kondo lattices and other rare-earth compounds.