Abstract
A large enhancement of the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism is observed at the iron K absorption preedge of magnetite. This is achieved by performing resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments with a 2p hole in the final state of the second-order optical process. We measured and calculated the full 1s2p RIXS planes for opposite helicities of the incoming circularly polarized x rays. The crystal field multiplet calculations show that the enhancement arises from 2p-3d Coulomb repulsions and 2p and 3d spin-orbit coupling. The observed magnitude of the RIXS magnetic circular dichroism effect is similar to 16%. This opens up new opportunities for a broad range of research fields allowing for truly bulk-sensitive, element-, and site-selective measurements of 3d transition metal magnetic moments and their ordering using hard x-ray photons.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 037202 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 105 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 13 Jul 2010 |
Funding
We acknowledge ESRF for the provision of beam time. We thank C. Brouder for discussion of the theoretical results, A. Rogalev and F. Wilhem for discussion on the correct sign of XMCD, and the ID26 staff for help in setting up the experiment. M. S. acknowledges financial support from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. A.J. and F.d.G. acknowledge financial support from the Netherlands National Science Foundation (NWO/VICI program).
Keywords
- RESONANT RAMAN-SCATTERING
- X-RAY-ABSORPTION
- LOWER MANTLE
- EMISSION
- IRON
- PEROVSKITE
- COMPLEXES
- SPECTRA
- EARTHS
- XMCD