Angular-resolved linear and circular dichroism in core-level photoemission of metallic systems

Abstract

Angle-dependent core-level photoemission excited with polarized x rays can be used to determine the magnetic properties of metallic systems by separating the geometrical dependence from the physical information that is contained in the spectra. There are four different geometries which can be distinguished: magnetic circular dichroism, linear dichroism, circular dichroism in the angular dependence, and magnetic linear dichroism in the angular dependence. The shape of the dichroic spectra in a one-electron model is determined by the core spin-orbit interaction and the spin field. A good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained for the Fe 3p photoemission of iron when the spin and orbit dependence of the lifetime broadening is taken into account. The influence of the orbit field and the spin filtering in the solid can be estimated from the first spectral moment.