Magnetometry of buried layers—Linear magnetic dichroism and spin detection in angular resolved hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Abstract The electronic properties of buried magnetic nano-layers were studied using the linear magnetic dichroism in the angular distribution of photoemitted Fe, Co, and Mn 2p electrons from a CoFe–Ir78Mn22 multi-layered sample. The buried layers were probed using hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, HAXPES, at the undulator beamline P09 of the 3rd generation storage ring PETRA III. The results demonstrate that this magnetometry technique can be used as a sensitive element specific probe for magnetic properties suitable for application to buried ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic magnetic materials and multilayered spintronics devices. Using the same instrument, spin-resolved Fe 2p HAXP…