Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of elementary excitations

In the past decade, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) has made remarkable progress as a spectroscopic technique. This is a direct result of the availability of high-brilliance synchrotron x-ray radiation sources and of advanced photon detection instrumentation. The technique's unique capability to probe elementary excitations in complex materials by measuring their energy, momentum, and polarization dependence has brought RIXS to the forefront of experimental photon science. Both the experimental and theoretical RIXS investigations of the past decade are reviewed, focusing on those determining the low-energy charge, spin, orbital, and lattice excitations of solids. The fundamentals of RIXS as an…