SPIN POLARIZED PHOTOEMISSION AND MAGNETIC CIRCULAY DICHROISM STUDY OF FeAl THIN FILMS

It is well known that the equiatomic FeAl alloy crystallizes in a paramagnetic CsCl structure and is very stable in a wide temperature range owing to a significant charge transfer from Al to Fe. A presence of structural defects normally enhances the magnetic and magneto-optical properties of this alloy. In this study spin-resolved photoemission and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) were carried out on both ordered and disordered $Fe_{0.52}Al_{0.48}$ alloy films. The disordered state in the alloy films was obtained by a vapor quenching deposition on cooled substrates. It is shown that the order-disorder transition in the Fe0.52Al0.48 alloy films leads to a significant change in the spin polarization. Form the MCD results the orbital and spin magnetic moments of the constituent atoms are obtained. According to the sum rule the spin and orbital magnetic moments of Fe in the disordered FeAl film are $\mu\frac{SR}{spin}=0.8\mu_B$ and $\mu\frac{SR}{orb}=0.14\mu_B$ respectively. The spin magnetic moment is also evaluated to be $\mu\frac{BR}{spin}=0.77\mu_B$ by the branching ration method employing a photon polarization of 90%.