Threshold photoemission magnetic circular dichroism at the spin-reorientation transition of ultrathin epitaxial Pt/Co/Pt(111)/W(110) films

2009

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) is nowadays widely used for the investigation of magnetic properties of surfaces and thin films. Recently, similarly large effects have been observed for UV-VIS MCD effects both in single [1] and two-photon photoemission [2-3]. This threshold MCD effect is directly related to spin-orbit effects present at the Fermi edge. We report on the observation of threshold photoemission magnetic circular dichroism (TPMCD) in one-photon and two-photon photoemission (1PPE and 2PPE) at a Pt-capped ultrathin Co wedge grown on Pt(111)/W(110) using femtosecond laser light. TPMCD measurements result in asymmetries continuously increasing with the sample thickness. This…