X- Ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism at the Iron K Edge in Rare-Earth-Transition-Metal Intermetallics: Experimental Probe of the Rare-Earth Magnetic Moment

We present a systematic X-Ray Circular Magnetic Dichroism study performed at the Fe K-edge on the R2Fe14B series (R=rare-earth and Y). The magnetic XCMD signal has been identified as due to the addition of two components associated to the magnetic contributions from the iron and the rare-sublattices. The contribution of the rare-earth sublattice has been extracted from the total XCMD signal. The integrated XCDM signal of the R component is proven to be directly correlated with the R magnetic moment.