On the possibility of using X-ray Compton scattering to study magnetoelectrical properties of crystals
- Diamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE (United Kingdom)
- Department of Physics, New York University, New York, NY 10003 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL (United Kingdom)
- Universität München, Department Chemie, Haus E2.033, Butenandtstrasse 5-13, D-81377 München (Germany)
The possibility of using X-ray Compton scattering to reveal antisymmetric components of the electron momentum density, as a fingerprint of magnetoelectric sample properties, is investigated experimentally and theoretically by studying the polar ferromagnet GaFeO{sub 3}. This paper discusses the possibility of using Compton scattering – an inelastic X-ray scattering process that yields a projection of the electron momentum density – to probe magnetoelectrical properties. It is shown that an antisymmetric component of the momentum density is a unique fingerprint of such time- and parity-odd physics. It is argued that polar ferromagnets are ideal candidates to demonstrate this phenomenon and the first experimental results are shown, on a single-domain crystal of GaFeO{sub 3}. The measured antisymmetric Compton profile is very small (≃ 10{sup −5} of the symmetric part) and of the same order of magnitude as the statistical errors. Relativistic first-principles simulations of the antisymmetric Compton profile are presented and it is shown that, while the effect is indeed predicted by theory, and scales with the size of the valence spin–orbit interaction, its magnitude is significantly overestimated. The paper outlines some important constraints on the properties of the antisymmetric Compton profile arising from the underlying crystallographic symmetry of the sample.
- OSTI ID:
- 22535123
- Journal Information:
- Acta Crystallographica. Section A, Foundations and Advances (Online), Vol. 72, Issue Pt 2; Other Information: PMCID: PMC4770871; PMID: 26919371; PUBLISHER-ID: kx5049; OAI: oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4770871; Copyright (c) S. P. Collins et al. 2016; This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are cited.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2053-2733
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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