Revealing Fe magnetism in lanthanide-iron intermetallic compounds by tuning the rare-earth L_(2,3)-edge x-ray absorption edges

摘要

We present a systematic x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) study performed at the rare-earth L_(2,3) edges in R(Al_(1-x)Fe_x)_2 Laves phase compounds. The progressive substitution of Al by Fe reveals the existence of a non-negligible contribution of Fe to the rare-earth XMCD spectra. This contribution has been isolated and shown to be similar to the dichroic spectrum recorded at the Fe K edge. These results open the possibility of monitoring the Fe magnetism in lanthanides-iron intermetallic compounds by probing the rare-earth L_(2,3)-edge x-ray absorption edges.