Element-specific magnetic moments from core-absorption magnetic circular dichroism of the doped Heusler alloyCo2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al

The magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) of core-level absorption (x-ray absorption spectroscopy, XAS) spectra in the soft x-ray region has been measured for the ferromagnetic Heusler alloy ${\mathrm{Co}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cr}}_{0.6}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.4}\mathrm{Al}$ at the Co, Fe, and Cr ${L}_{II,III}$ edges. The comparison of XAS spectra before and after in situ cleaning of polished surfaces revealed a pronounced selective oxidation of Cr in air. For clean surfaces we observed a MCD for all three elements with Fe showing the largest moment per atom. The MCD can be explained by the density of states of the $3d$ unoccupied states, predicted by linear muffin-tin orbital atomic sphere approximation. For …