Influence of the crystal structure of thin Co films on X-ray magnetic linear dichroism—Comparison of ab initio theory and reflectometry experiments

We report an investigation of the influence of the crystal structure of Co thin films on the X-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) spectrum. We compare XMLD spectra measured in reflection at the 3p-edges for two distinct orientations of the magnetization in the crystalline Co film with ab initio calculated spectra. The latter was computed for the face-centered cubic as well as the hexagonal-close packed crystal structures of Co. We find that the XMLD signal is strongly dependent on the magnetization direction with respect to the crystal axes as well as strongly influenced by the crystal structure.