Low-energy d-d excitations in MnO studied by resonant x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy

We measured the Mn L(alpha,beta) x-ray fluorescence spectra of MnO excited by selected photon energies near the L(2,3) absorption edges. The resulting resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra probe low-lying electronic excited states, due to dd and charge-transfer excitations. Using a two-step model and a purely atomic approximation, we reproduce both energies and varying intensities of dd excitations relative to the electronic recombination peak. Our results show that strongly varying line shapes in resonant x-ray emission need not be due to channel interference effects.