  Recent x-ray spectroscopic studies have revealed spin excitations and charge
density waves in thin films of infinite-layer (IL) nickelates. However,
clarifying whether the origin of these phenomena is intrinsic to the material
class or attributable to impurity phases in the films has presented a major
challenge. Here we utilize topotactic methods to synthesize bulk crystals of
the IL nickelate LaNiO$_2$ with crystallographically oriented surfaces. We
examine these crystals using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the
Ni $L_3$-edge to elucidate the spin and charge correlations in the bulk of the
material. While we detect the presence of prominent spin excitations in the
crystals, fingerprints of charge order are absent at the ordering vectors
identified in previous in thin-film studies. These results contribute to the
understanding of the bulk properties of LaNiO$_2$ and establish topotactically
synthesized crystals as viable complementary specimens for spectroscopic
investigations.
