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We measured high resolution Cu $L_3$ edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) of the undoped cuprates La$_2$CuO$_4$, Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$, CaCuO$_2$ and NdBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_6$. The dominant spectral features were assigned to $dd$ excitations and we extensively studied their polarization and scattering geometry dependence. In a pure ionic picture, we calculated the theoretical cross sections for those excitations and used them to fit the experimental data with excellent agreement. By doing so, we were able to determine the energy and symmetry of Cu-3$d$ states for the four systems with unprecedented accuracy and confidence. The values of the effective parameters could be obtained for the single ion crystal field model but not for a simple two-dimensional cluster model. The firm experimental assessment of $dd$ excitation energies carries important consequences for the physics of high $T_c$ superconductors. On one hand, having found that the minimum energy of orbital excitation is always $\geq 1.4$ eV, i.e., well above the mid-infrared spectral range, leaves to magnetic excitations (up to 300 meV) a major role in Cooper pairing in cuprates. On the other hand, it has become possible to study quantitatively the effective influence of $dd$ excitations on the superconducting gap in cuprates., 22 pages, 11 figures, 1 table

International audience; X-ray magnetic circular dichroism provides evidence of an out-of-plane spin moment in undoped and doped cuprates. In La2CuO4 this moment is related to the canting of the antiferromagnetically ordered Cu2+ spins caused by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction within the CuO2 planes. This canting gives rise to the well-known weak ferromagnetism in high magnetic fields. We find a similar behavior in doped compounds, both in the normal and in the superconducting state, but with a different temperature dependence typical of paramagnetic systems. This result suggests that, together with short-range in-plane antiferromagnetic correlations, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction survives up to optimal doping and in the superconducting state.

We compare the theoretical predictions of the previous article [L. Benfatto and M. B. Silva Neto, cond-mat/0602419], with Raman spectroscopy experiments in Sr(2)CuO(2)Cl(2) and untwinned La(2)CuO(4) single crystals. We construct the magnetic point group for the magnetically ordered phase of the two compounds, Sr(2)CuO(2)Cl(2) and La(2)CuO(4), and we classify all the Raman active one-magnon excitations according to the irreducible co-representations for the associated magnetic point group. We then measure the evolution of the one-magnon Raman energies and intensities for low and moderate magnetic fields along the three crystallographic directions. In the case of La(2)CuO(4), we demonstrate that from the jump of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya gap at the critical magnetic field H_c ~ 6.6 T for the weak-ferromagnetic transition one can determine the value of the interlayer coupling J_\perp/J ~ 3.2 x 10^-5. We furthermore determine the components of the anisotropic gyromagnetic tensor as g_s^a=2.0, g_s^b=2.08, and the upper bound g_s^c=2.65. For the case of Sr(2)CuO(2)Cl(2), we compare the Raman data obtained in an in-plane magnetic field with previous magnon-gap measurements done by ESR. Using the very low magnon gap estimated by ESR (~ 0.05 meV), the data for the one-magnon Raman energies agree reasonably well with the theoretical predictions for the case of a transverse field (only hardening of the gap)., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, final version. Part I can be found at cond-mat/0602419

The origin of the apparent discrepancies between the one-particle spectra of the Hubbard and t-J models is revealed: Wavefunction corrections, in addition to the three-site terms, should supplement the bare t-J. In this way a quantitative agreement between the two models is obtained, even for the intermediate-$U$ values appropriate for the high-Tc cuprate superconductors. Numerical results for clusters of up to 20 sites are presented. The momentum dependence of the observed intensities in the photoemission spectra of Sr2CuO2Cl2 are well described by this complete strong-coupling approach., 4 two-column RevTeX pages, including 4 Postscript figures. Uses epsf. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B, Rapid Communication

We have exploited angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to study changes in the quasiparticle excitations of CuO2 planes as a function of the carrier density, in optimally doped and underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCuO8+x and in Sr2CuO2Cl2. We have observed large changes in the E versus k dispersion of the quasiparticle bands, and in the topology of the Fermi surface away from optimal doping. We have also found that the carrier density has a nontrivial effect on the symmetry properties of these states.

Using angle-resolved photoemission and linearly polarized synchrotron radiation, we measured the electronic band structure of electronic states of CuO2 plane materials ranging from insulators (Sr2CuO2Cl2) to overdoped superconductors (Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x). We report three results: (i) The CuO2 containing insulator possesses a spin-density-wave (SDW) ground state; (ii) there are precursors df the SDW state for underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x; (iii) an extended saddle-point-type van Hove singularity is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a high superconducting transition temperature, T-c.