Investigation of ultrafast electronic structure dynamics in correlated oxides at European XFEL

Mark P. M. Dean from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Sophia TenHuisen from Harvard University, USA, are researching the cuprate La2-xSrxCuO4 at the SCS (Spectroscopy & Coherent Scattering) instrument of European XFEL. The different ways in which the oxygen and the copper electronic states hybridize is responsible for the diverse properties of this material that range from novel magnetic effects to unconventional superconductivity. Using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) and a pump-and-probe technique, Dean, TenHuisen, and collaborators investigate the photoexcitation of oxygen atoms in La2-xSrxCuO4. The results will help to model how photoexcitation changes the Coulomb repulsion, the shape of the orbitals and the distribution of charge carriers.