Magnetic linear dichroism in valence band photoemission - a technique to study electronic and magnetic properties

Magnetic linear dichroism in the angular distribution of photoelectrons (MLDAD) is an appropriate technique to study at the same time the electronic band structure as well as magnetic phenomena of thin films and single crystals. Epitaxial HCP(0 0 0 1) cobalt films on W(1 1 0) have been analyzed with linearly polarized synchrotron radiation in valence band photoemission (hv < 25 eV). For some photon energies the spectra show huge photoelectron intensity differences (i.e.. MLDAD effects) in the Co 3d valence band, when magnetizing the cobalt film remanently in opposite directions. The origin as well as the energy dependence of MLDAD is analyzed with respect to a fully relativistic band structure calculation including spin-orbit and exchange interaction. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.