Direct experimental observation of the molecular J eff = 3/2 ground state in the lacunar spinel GaTa4Se8

Abstract

The strong interaction between electron spin and orbital degrees of freedom in 5d oxides can lead to exotic electronic ground states. Here the authors use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering to demonstrate that the theoretically proposed J eff = 3/2 state is realised in GaTa4Se8.