Soft X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Study of Uranium Monochalcogenides at Uranium <i>N</i>_4,5 Absorption Edges

Abstract

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) was measured for the ferromagnetic uranium monochalcogenides US and USe at U N 4,5 absorption edges in the soft X-ray region. The obtained N 4,5 XMCD signal of US was comparable to the M 4,5 XMCD signal obtained in previous studies. From the sum-rule analysis of XMCD data, it was shown that the estimated ratios of orbital magnetic moment to spin magnetic moment |µ L /µ S | were almost the same for US and USe. The analysis of the XAS branching ratio indicated an increase in 5 f electron occupation number from US to USe, which may suppress the increase in |µ L /µ S |.