Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering as a probe of band structure effects in cuprates

We analyze within quasiparticle theory a recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiment on YBa2Cu3O6+x with the incoming photon energy detuned at several values from the resonance maximum [Minola et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 217003 (2015)]. Surprisingly, the data show a much weaker dependence on detuning than expected from recent measurements on a different cuprate superconductor, Bi2Sr2CuO6+x [Guarise et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 5760 (2014)]. We demonstrate here that this discrepancy, originally attributed to collective magnetic excitations, can be understood in terms of the differences between the band structures of these materials. We find good agreement between theory and experiment over a large range of dopings, both in the underdoped and overdoped regimes. Moreover, we demonstrate that the RIXS signal depends sensitively on excitations at energies well above the Fermi surface that are inaccessible to traditionally used band structure probes, such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. This makes RIXS a powerful probe of band structure, not suffering from surface preparation problems and small sample sizes, making it potentially applicable to a number of cuprate materials.