Magnetic circular dichroism in 4d→4f resonant photoemission and photoabsorption of Gd metal

Abstract

A consistent description of magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in resonant 4d\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4f photoemission (PE) and 4d photoabsorption (PA) from magnetized rare-earth metals is presented. In the case of ferromagnetic Gd metal it is found that the MCD of the resonant 4fPE spectra varies strongly when the photon energy is scanned across the resonance region. We show that the spectral shape of the 4fPE multiplet is determined by the total angular momentum of the intermediate ${4\mathrm{d}}^{9}$ ${4\mathrm{f}}^{8}$ PA state, which is reflected in the sign of the PA-MCD at the excitation energy.