Magnetic x-ray dichroism in the spectroscopy of ultrathin magnetic alloy films

The magnetic structure of nanoscale alloy films has been probed using the magnetic x-ray Linear dichroism in photoelectron spectroscopy and magnetic x-ray circular dichroism in x-ray absorption spectroscopy. FeNi and CoFe epitaxial films were grown on Cu(001), in situ and using MBE techniques. Because soft x-rays were used to probe the 2p and 3p core levels, both elemental selectivity and magnetic sensitivity were achieved simultaneously. Correlation of these magnetic techniques with compositional and structural information will be done. Ultimately, from studies such as this a complete determination of the structure-property relationships will be achievable. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.