XAS and XMCD studies of amorphous FeCo-based ribbons

Abstract

This paper reports x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) studies at Fe L-3.2 and Co L-3.2-edges to investigate the electronic structure of (Fe100-xCox)(78)Si9Nb3B9Cu1 (0 < x < 95) alloys. The influence of controlled Co addition on electronic structural and magnetic properties of (Fe100-x,Co-x)(78)Si9Nb3B9Cu1 (x = 0, 20, 40, and 60) alloys has been investigated and it has been observed that Co exists as Co2+/Co3+, while Fe exists as a mixture of Fe (metallic) and Fe2+. The XMCD studies confirm these results and reveal that Co-ions are responsible for the room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in the system, while at Fe L-3.2-edge it shows a diamagnetic behavior. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.