Herein we show that nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering involving an $s$ core level is a powerful spectroscopic method to characterize the excited states of transition metal compounds. The spherical charge distribution of the $s$ core hole allows the orientational dependence of the intensities of the various spectral features to produce a spatial charge image of the associated multiplet states in a straightforward manner, thereby facilitating the identification of their orbital character. In addition, the $s$ core hole does not add an extra orbital angular momentum component to the multiplet structure so that the well-established Sugano-Tanabe-Kamimura diagrams can be used for the analysis of the spectra. For $\alpha$-MnS we observe the spherical charge density corresponding to its high-spin $3d^5$ (${}^6{A}_1$) ground state configuration and we were able to selectively image its excited states and identify them as $t_{2g}$ (${}^5{T}_2$) and $e_g$ (${}^{5}E$) with an energy splitting $10Dq$ of 0.78 eV.

中文翻译：

---

X射线光谱激发态的选择性轨道成像：α-MnS的例子

在这里，我们表明非共振非弹性X射线散射涉及 $s$核能级是表征过渡金属化合物激发态的有力光谱方法。球的电荷分布$s$芯孔允许各种光谱特征的强度的定向相关性以直接的方式产生相关联的多重态的空间电荷图像，从而有助于识别它们的轨道特性。除此之外$s$芯孔不会在多重结构中添加额外的轨道角动量分量，因此可以将成熟的Sugano-Tanabe-Kamimura图用于光谱分析。对于$\alpha$-MnS我们观察到对应于其高自旋的球形电荷密度 $3d^5$ （${}^6{\mathrm{一种}}_{\mathrm{1个}}$）的基态配置，我们能够选择性地对其激发态成像并确定它们为 ${Ť}_{2G}$ （${}^5{Ť}_2$）和 ${Ë}_G$ （${}^5Ë$）具有能量分裂 $10dq$ 为0.78 eV。