DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2002-00103-6


Europhys. Lett., 58 (6) , pp. 906-911 (2002)

Direct correlation of 3d orbital polarization and K-edge X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of epitaxial films

E. Goering¹, A. Bayer², S. Gold¹, G. Schütz¹, M. Rabe³, U. Rüdiger³ and G. Güntherodt<sup>3

1</sup>  MPI für Metallforschung - Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
²  Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg - 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³  II. Physikalisches Institut, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen 52056 Aachen, Germany

(Received 14 January 2002; accepted in final form 28 March 2002)

Abstract
The role of delocalization and hybridization in complex magnetic oxides has been investigated by magnetic oxygen K-edge absorption of circular polarized soft X-rays in epitaxial grown CrO ₂ as a function of the azimuthal angle at grazing incidence. Unusual strong variations in the typically small X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) signal have been observed. Those angular dependencies of the typical CrO ₂ oxygen K-edge XMCD signal could be quantitatively interpreted in terms of an induced anisotropic Cr 3d orbital magnetism for different spectral regions of the unoccupied density of states. The results strongly suggest a delocalized non-ionic magnetic behavior of the conduction electrons.

PACS
78.20.Ls - Magnetooptical effects.
75.30.Gw - Magnetic anisotropy.
78.70.Dm - X-ray absorption spectra.


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