Induced magnetism at thin-film interfaces probed by means of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

We report on the induced magnetism at the interfaces of layered structures of 3d and 5d metals explored with the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) technique. The beginning as well as the end of the 5d series were analysed by investigating W/Fe and Ir/Fe superlattices. W is found to couple antiferromagnetically and Ir ferromagnetically to the Fe layers. The induced spin moment is oriented parallel to the induced orbital moment for the W as well as the Ir case. For the early 3d element vanadium, a thickness-dependent study was carried out for prototype Fe/V/Fe(110) trilayers to study the range of the polarization in vanadium. A short-range polarization was found, resolving inconsistencies between earlier theoretical and experimental works. Since the sum rule analysis usually used for the XMCD technique is not appropriate for the early 3d element vanadium, the experimental absorption fine structure and the magnetic dichroism are compared to ab initio calculations in order to obtain magnetic ground state properties.

Figure 7 in this article was corrected on 21/03/2003 because of an error introduced during publication.