Observation of orbital moment in NiO using magnetic x-ray scattering

Abstract
The spin and orbital contribution to the total magnetization have been measured in NiO by exploiting the polarization dependence of nonresonant x-ray magnetic scattering. Although the orbital moment is usually neglected, we observed that the orbital moment actually plays an important role with a contribution of 17% to the total magnetization density. By performing azimuthal scans, it was found that spin and orbital moments are collinear.