Element-specific spin-orbital structure and their interplay in rare-earth orthoferrite DyFeO3

The orthoferrite RFeO3 (R = rare-earth), featuring various magnetic and polar symmetry-breaking phases and high tunability, is a prime platform for optoelectronics device applications. In this vein, however, the electronic inter-orbital multiplet ground/excited states of rare-earth and iron sublattices, which have been long considered as the main driving mechanism for its underlying spin and orbital broken symmetries, are lacking quantitative analysis and experimental understanding. We propose polarized-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering with temperature dependence on DyFeO3 to measure these multiplet excitations across distinct magnetic phases to directly tackle this issue.