X-ray magnetic circular dichroism: Orbital and spin moments of iron single-crystal thin film deposited on MgO substrate.

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism in absorption of the single-crystal iron layer deposited epitaxially on MgO substrate is studied. Spin and orbital moment, 0.069 and 2.33 μB, respectively, are calculated in terms of the XMCD sum rules. Our results are accordant to those published. Experiments show that the orbital moment would be decreased to that in bulk materials as iron film is thinned down, but spin moment changes little. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]