XMCD study of Fe-Cr-Co alloy under electron irradiation

The effect of electron irradiation on the electronic structure of Fe-Cr-Co alloy was investigated by soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) technique. The magnetic moments of Fe and Co atoms in the alloy were calculated by sum rules, and the change of local environment of magnetic atoms after electron irradiation were discussed. It was shown that the larger spin-orbit interaction exists in the 3d orbitals of Fe and Co atoms, and the electron irradiation significantly affected the spin-orbit coupling interaction of magnetic atoms, resulting in the decrease of orbital-to-spin moment ratio of Fe and Co atoms after electronic irradiation. This was found to be primarily due to the effect of irradiation on the electron structure and crystal-field. The variation of absorption spectrum at L edge indicates that a charge transfer occurred between Fe and Co atoms during electron irradiation.