Application of magnetic circular dichroism to magnetic thin films

✍ Scribed by Y.U. Idzerda; C.T. Chen; H.-J. Lin; H. Tjeng; G. Meigs

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 325 KB
• Volume: 208-209
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-4526(94)00800-b

✦ Synopsis

The L2, 3 edge magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of 3d transition metal magnetic thin films and overlayers is used to identify the presence and alignment of the magnetic moment of overlayers on ferromagnetic and non-magnetic substrates. A controversial application of MCD is the determination of the magnitude of magnetic moments and the extraction of orbital and spin contributions to the moment. To study this, we have measured, in transmission, the helicity-dependent, total absorption cross-section at the L2 and L3 absorption edge of Fe and Co ultrathin films deposited on 1 ~tm parylene foil. Using no artificial background subtraction or curve renormalization, we obtain clean spectra for comparison with theoretical methods of the extraction of the orbital and spin contributions to the total moment.