Electronic and magnetic structures of Sr2FeMOO6 - art. no. 097204

We have investigated the electronic and magnetic structures of Sr2FeMoO6 em ploying site-specific direct probes, namely x-ray absorption spectroscopy w ith linearly and circularly polarized photons. In contrast to some previous suggestions, the results clearly establish that Fe is in the formal trival ent state in this compound. With the help of circularly polarized light, it is unambiguously shown that the moment at the Mo sites is below the limit of detection (<0.25 <mu>(B)), resolving a previous controversy. We also sho w that the decrease of the observed moment in magnetization measurements fr om the theoretically expected value is driven by the presence of mis-site d isorder between Fe and Mo sites.