X-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of uranium/iron multilayers

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements were performed at the U M-4,M-5 edges and Fe K edge on well-defined uranium/iron multilayers with different compositions. The multilayers have layer thicknesses in the range 9-40 A for uranium and 9-34 A for iron. At both 10 K and room temperature, the U layers are magnetically polarized in all of the multilayers studied. To deduce the magnetic moment on the uranium from the XMCD results requires assumptions about the magnetic dipole operator in the analysis, and this is discussed in detail. Given the most likely scenario of strong hybridization between the U 5f and Fe 3d states, the largest value of the induced U moment is similar to 0.12 mu(B), which is located primarily at the interface and oscillates within the uranium layer.