Quantitative determination of bond order and lattice distortions in nickel oxide heterostructures by resonant x-ray scattering

Abstract

Resonant x-ray scattering is used to definitively show that a pure spin density wave state is the ground state in ultrathin LaNiO${}_{3}$ layers sandwiched between LAAlO${}_{3}$ layers. This result is also shown to be in agreement with first-principles calculations.