K-edge x-ray absorption spectra in transition-metal oxides beyond the single-particle approximation: Shake-up many-body effects

Near-edge structures in K-edge x-ray absorption spectra (XAS) are widely investigated to understand the electronic and local structure in materials. The precise interpretation of these spectra with the help of calculations is hence of prime importance, especially for the study of correlated materials which have a complicated electronic structure per se. The single-particle approach, for example, has generally limited itself to the dominant dipolar cross section. It has long been known, however, that effects beyond this approach should be taken into account, due to both the inadequacy of such calculations when compared to experiment and the presence of shakeup many-body satellites in core-level photoemission spectra of correlated materials. This effect should manifest itself in XANES spectra, and the question is first how to account for it theoretically and second how to verify it experimentally. By using state-of-the-art first-principles electronic structure calculations and 1s photoemission measurements, we demonstrate that shakeup many-body effects are present in K-edge XAS dipolar spectra of NiO, CoO, and CuO at all energy scales. We show that shakeup effects can be included in K-edge XAS spectra in a simple way by convoluting the single-particle first-principles calculations including core-hole effects with the 1s photoemission spectra. We thus describe all features appearing in the XAS dipolar cross section of NiO and CoO and obtain a dramatic improvement with respect to the single-particle calculation in CuO. These materials being prototype correlated magnetic oxides, our work points to the presence of shakeup effects in K-edge XANES of most correlated transition-metal compounds and shows how to account for them, paving the way to a precise understanding of their electronic structure.