Correlation of spin and orbital anisotropies with chemical order inFe0.5Pd0.5alloy films using magnetic circular x-ray dichroism

Abstract
The effects of chemical ordering in thin film Fe0.5Pd0.5 alloys, deposited by molecular-beam epitaxy directly on a MgO (001) substrate, have been studied using magnetic circular x-ray dichroism (MCXD) at the Pd and Fe L2,3 edges. This system exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy if grown in the L10 (001) phase and in-plane anisotropy in the disordered γ phase. We show that MCXD is a sensitive tool for studying variations in the spin and orbital magnetic moments due to changes in the chemical order. We obtain quantitative results for spin and orbital anisotropies and their variations with chemical order in the Fe0.5Pd0.5 alloy system.