XFEL: Transient modification of oxygen hybridization in a cuprate superconductor

Sophia TenHuisen from Harvard University and Mark P. M. Dean from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA, are researching the cuprate La_2-xSr_xCuO₄ 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 La_2-xSr_xCuO₄. The results will help to model how photoexcitation changes the Coulomb repulsion, the shape of the orbitals and the distribution of charge carriers.

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