MAGNETIC COMPTON-SCATTERING - GATHERING MOMENTUM

Measurements of magnetic effects at X-ray wavelengths in photoabsorption, diffraction and Compton scattering are moving from a demonstration towards an exploitation phase with the development of synchrotron insertion devices capable of producing high flux of radiation with circular as well as linear polarisation. Compton scattering studies of the electron momentum distribution are greatly enhanced by the isolation of the magnetisation-dependent part. This has already lead to the improvements in band models and the prospect of separating spin-up and spin-down contributions. In ferromagnets the measurement of the integrated Compton intensity, rather than its spectral distribution provides a simple method of separately identifying the spin and orbital contributions to the total magnetisation.