Unraveling intrinsic correlation effects with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 117; no. 46; pp. 28596 - 28602
• Main Authors: Zhou, Jianqiang Sky, Reining, Lucia, Nicolaou, Alessandro, Bendounan, Azzedine, Ruotsalainen, Kari, Vanzini, Marco, Kas, J. J., Rehr, J. J., Muntwiler, Matthias, Strocov, Vladimir N., Sirotti, Fausto, Gatti, Matteo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 17-11-2020
• Subjects: Aluminum; Angular resolution; ARPES; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Condensed Matter; Electronic spectra; Feature extraction; first-principles calculations; Inelastic scattering; Information processing; Material properties; Materials Science; Metals; Photoelectric emission; Photoelectrons; Physical Sciences; Physics; plasmon satellites; Satellites; science & technology; Spectroscopy; Spectrum analysis; first-principles calculations; plasmon satellites; ARPES
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2012625117

Interaction effects can change materials properties in intriguing ways, and they have, in general, a huge impact on electronic spectra. In particular, satellites in photoemission spectra are pure many-body effects, and their study is of increasing interest in both experiment and theory. However, the intrinsic spectral function is only a part of a measured spectrum, and it is notoriously difficult to extract this information, even for simple metals. Our joint experimental and theoretical study of the prototypical simple metal aluminum demonstrates how intrinsic satellite spectra can be extracted from measured data using angular resolution in photoemission. A nondispersing satellite is detected and explained by electron–electron interactions and the thermal motion of the atoms. Additional nondispersing intensity comes from the inelastic scattering of the outgoing photoelectron. The ideal intrinsic spectral function, instead, has satellites that disperse both in energy and in shape. Theory and the information extracted from experiment describe these features with very good agreement.