AVS 45th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Technical Group Thursday Sessions
       Session MI-ThP

Paper MI-ThP6
X-Ray Magnetic Linear Loops (XMLL)

Thursday, November 5, 1998, 5:30 pm, Room Hall A

Session: Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Poster Session
Presenter: M.M. Schwickert, Ohio University
Authors: M.M. Schwickert, Ohio University
W.L. O'Brien, University of Wisconsin, Madison
G.R. Harp, Ohio University
Correspondent: Click to Email
The x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) in absorption relies upon the dichroic contrast of two perpendicular magnetization states. We introduce a novel variation to the conventional XMLD experiment which we term XMLL. We have observed the photoabsorption of linearly polarized light while rotating the magnetizaton vector M via an applied magnetic field with frequency w. Extracting the magnetic information from the absorption background leads to the x-ray magnetic linear loops (XMLL). The presented results were obtained by using linearly polarized synchrotron radiation at the L_3 absorption edge of Fe. In accordance with the M^2 dependence of the XMLD effect, we have found that the XMLL frequency spectrum is dominated by 2w, as opposed to possible w or 4w contributions. We applied this technique to Fe/Cr(001) multilayers that are antiferromagnetically exchange coupled. In low magnetic fields when the sample is in the spin-flop state the XMLLs are inverted as compared to ferromagnetic samples, such as Fe thin films. XMLL results for these samples are presented and we discuss applications of XMLL as a characterization tool especially suited to antiferromagnetic materials.