Electronic magnetic structure of intermetallic compounds RNi2Mn studied by XMCD

The x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements in the hard X-ray range at the Ni and Mn K edges and Tb, Dy L-2,(3) edges were carried out in TbNi2Mn and DyNi2Mn in magnetic field up to 6 T at 10 K. XMCD on the Dy and Tb L-edges reaches 3.2%. The spin and orbital d-projected density of states on Tb and Dy atoms were obtained from the XMCD spectra. The Ni and Mn K-edges absorptions are practically identical in both compounds, as well as the dichroism spectra. The magnitude of dichroism is less than 0.5% and its length of about 50 eV. Scattering of outgoing p-wave on magnetic atoms environment is the main source of the K-edge dichroism. Element-specific magnetic hysteresis-loops measurements on TbNi2Mn and DyNi2Mn were performed by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism.