The potential of resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering to measure 4f crystal electric-field excitation spectra in Ce Kondo lattices has been examined. Spectra have been obtained for several Ce systems and show a well-defined structure determined by crystal-field, spin-orbit, and charge-transfer excitations only. The spectral shapes of the excitation spectra can be well understood in the framework of atomic multiplet calculations. For CeCu 2 Si 2 we found notable disagreement between the inelastic x-ray-scattering spectra and theoretical calculations when using the crystal-field scheme proposed from inelastic neutron scattering. Modified sets of crystal-field parameters yield better agreement. Our results also show that, with the very recent improvements of soft x-ray spectrometers in resolution to below 30 meV at the Ce M 4,5 edges, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering could be an ideal tool to determine the crystal-field scheme in Ce Kondo lattices and other rare-earth compounds.

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