No Arabic abstract
The X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) has been measured at the Co K edge in Co-hcp and R-Co compounds (R=La, Tb, Dy). The structure of the experimental XMCD spectra in the near-edge region has been observed to be highly sensitive to the magnetic environment of the absorbing site. Calculations of the XMCD have been carried out at the Co K edge in Co metal, LaCo$_5$ and TbCo$_5$ within the multiple-scattering framework including the spin-orbit coupling. In the three systems, the XMCD spectra in the near-edge region are well reproduced. The possibility to separate and quantitatively estimate the local effects from those due to the neighboring atoms in the XMCD cross section makes possible a more physical understanding of the spectra. The present results emphasize the major role played by the $d$ states of the Tb ions in the XMCD spectrum at the Co K edge in the TbCo$_5$ compound.
The acute sensitivity of the electrical resistance of certain systems to magnetic fields known as extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) has recently been explored in a new materials context with topological semimetals. Exemplified by WTe$_{2}$ and rare earth monopnictide La(Sb,Bi), these systems tend to be non-magnetic, nearly compensated semimetals and represent a platform for large magnetoresistance driven by intrinsic electronic structure. Here we explore electronic transport in magnetic members of the latter family of semimetals and find that XMR is strongly modulated by magnetic order. In particular, CeSb exhibits XMR in excess of $1.6 times 10^{6}$ % at fields of 9 T while the magnetoresistance itself is non-monotonic across the various magnetic phases and shows a transition from negative magnetoresistance to XMR with field above magnetic ordering temperature $T_{N}$. The magnitude of the XMR is larger than in other rare earth monopnictides including the non-magnetic members and follows an non-saturating power law to fields above 30 T. We show that the overall response can be understood as the modulation of conductivity by the Ce orbital state and for intermediate temperatures can be characterized by an effective medium model. Comparison to the orbitally quenched compound GdBi supports the correlation of XMR with the onset of magnetic ordering and compensation and highlights the unique combination of orbital inversion and type-I magnetic ordering in CeSb in determining its large response. These findings suggest a paradigm for magneto-orbital control of XMR and are relevant to the understanding of rare earth-based correlated topological materials.
We present experimental XMLD spectra measured on epitaxial (001)-oriented thin Co$_{2}$FeSi films, which are rich in features and depend sensitively on the degree of atomic order and interdiffusion from capping layers. Al- and Cr-capped films with different degrees of atomic order were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering by varying the deposition temperatures. The local structural properties of the film samples were additionally investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. The XMLD spectra of the different samples show clear and uniform trends at the $L_{3,2}$ edges. The Al-capped samples show similar behavior as previous measured XMLD spectra of Co$_2$FeSi$_{0.6}$Al$_{0.4}$. Thus, we assume that during deposition Al atoms are being implanted into the subsurface of Co$_{2}$FeSi. Such an interdiffusion is not observed for the corresponding Cr-capped films, which makes Cr the material of choice for capping Co$_{2}$FeSi films. We report stronger XMLD intensities at the $L_{3,2}$ Co and Fe egdes for films with a higher saturation magnetization. Additionally, we compare the spectra with textit{ab initio} predictions and obtain a reasonably good agreement. Furthermore, we were able to detect an XMCD signal at the Si $L$-edge, indicating the presence of a magnetic moment at the Si atoms.
Surface alloying is a straightforward route to control and modify the structure and electronic properties of surfaces. Here, We present a systematical study on the structural and electronic properties of three novel rare earth-based intermetallic compounds, namely ReAu2 (Re = Tb, Ho, and Er), on Au(111) via directly depositing rare-earth metals onto the hot Au(111) surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy measurements reveal the very similar atomic structures and electronic properties, e.g. electronic states, and surface work functions, for all these intermetallic compound systems due to the physical and chemical similarities between these rare earth elements. Further, these electronic properties are periodically modulated by the moire structures caused by the lattice mismatches between ReAu2 and Au(111). These periodically modulated surfaces could serve as templates for the self-assembly of nanostructures. Besides, these two-dimensional rare earth-based intermetallic compounds provide platforms to investigate the rare earth related catalysis, magnetisms, etc., in the lower dimensions.
X-ray absorption (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectra at the L$_{2,3}$ edges of Mn in (Ge,Mn) compounds have been measured and are compared to the results of first principles calculation. Early textit{ab initio} studies show that the Density Functional Theory (DFT) can very well describe the valence band electronic properties but fails to reproduce a characteristic change of sign in the L$_{3}$ XMCD spectrum of Mn in Ge$_3$Mn$_5$, which is observed in experiments. In this work we demonstrate that this disagreement is partially related to an underestimation of the exchange splitting of Mn 2$p$ core states within the local density approximation. It is shown that the change in sign experimentally observed is reproduced if the exchange splitting is accurately calculated within the Hartree-Fock approximation, while the final states can be still described by the DFT. This approach is further used to calculate the XMCD in different (Ge,Mn) compounds. It demonstrates that the agreement between experimental and theoretical spectra can be improved by combining state of the art calculations for the core and valence states respectively.
An implementation of the multiple-scattering approach to x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) in K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy is presented. The convergence problems due to the cluster size and the relativistic corrections are solved using an expansion of the Dirac Green function for complex energies up to the second order in 1/$c$. The Fermi energy is dealt with via a complex plane integration. Numerical methods used to obtain the semi-relativistic Green function in the whole complex plane are explained. We present a calculation of the magnetic circular dichroism at the K-edge of bcc-iron including the core hole effect. A good agreement is found at high energy. The physical origins of the XMCD spectrum near the edge and far from the edge are analyzed. The influence of the core hole, the possibility of a multiple-scattering expansion and the relation of XMCD with the spin-polarized density of states are discussed. A simple interpretation of XMCD at the K-edge is presented in terms of a rigid-band model.