Dichroism in angular resolved XPS from gadolinium core-levels

This work reports on measurements of the magnetic dichroism in angular reso lved photoemission from the Gd 4l (l=s,p,d,f) core-levels of in-plane magne tised Gd films excited with linearly and circularly polarised, as well as u npolarised, Light. High resolution spectra were taken by means of the advan ced photoelectron spectrometer-diffractometer end-station at the Advanced L ight Source in Berkeley. The dichroism measurements were performed by physi cally rotating the sample azimuth to change the direction of the magnetisat ion axis relative to the incident Light. Strong asymmetries were observed, even when exciting the spectra with unpolarised light. This paper demonstra tes how magnetic dichroism utilising unpolarised light easily gives informa tion about the relative orientation of the magnetisation with respect to th e plane of photon incidence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.