Local structure and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of Au in Au-Co nanoalloys

Coupling a plasmonic metal with a magnetic one in thin films and nanostructures is very interesting for the emerging field of magnetoplasmonics. In particular, coupling through alloying is a promising strategy to induce a magnetic moment on the plasmonic metal atoms, in a way that is intimately related to the local structure of the (metastable) alloy material. In this framework, Au:Co bimetallic films have been produced via magnetron co-sputtering deposition. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at both Au- and Co-edges clearly indicates the formation of a full-metallic layer composed for the major part of a binary AuxCo1−x alloy, with x = 0.7-0.8. XAS and transmission electron microscopy analyses suggest the presence of a minor fraction of segregated metals. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) analysis at Au L2,3 edges detected a net magnetic moment of Au atoms (μ = 0.06 μB), significantly larger (≈3.5 times) that the one for Au-capped Co nanoclusters and comparable to the one for a Co-rich Au/Co multilayer, despite the 4 times larger concentration of Co with respect to the present case. This Au-Co magnetic coupling is favored by a high degree of mixing of the two metals in the alloy.