MODIFICATIONS IN THE ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE OF 3D SINGLE-LAYERS, BI-LAYERS AND TRI-LAYERS ON CU(001)

We report near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) measureme nts of Ni and Co films on Cu(001) surface. The Ni and Co L-3,L-2 white line intensities show that the density of 3d holes (n(h)) increases b y 15-20% from a submonolayer to a 4 ML thick film. This implies that a constant value of n(h) cannot be used in sum rules to estimate local magnetic moment by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). A similar analysis of bi- and tri-layers highlights the changes in electronic a nd band structure that can be explained in terms of hybridisation betw een Ni, Co and Cu d bands. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights r eserved.