Spin and orbital magnetic moments of ultrathin Fe films on GaAs(100) studied by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Abstract The spin and orbital magnetic moments of 33 and 8 ML epitaxial BCC Fe films grown on GaAs(1 0 0)-4×6 have been measured using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Both samples have approximately the same spin moments of about 2.0 μ B close to that of the bulk value, which confirms that there are no magnetic dead layers at the interface. A giant orbital moment enhancement of about 300% was observed in the 8 ML film, which may be partially due to an increased degree of localization of electronic states at the Fe/GaAs interface.