Spin density in Gd studied by magnetic Compton scattering

The spin-dependent momentum density of single-crystal ferromagnetic gadolinium was probed by the magnetic Compton profile technique. Comparison with electronic structure calculations indicate that the local spin-density approximation is adequate for describing the magnetic Compton profiles. Furthermore, the linear combination of muffin-tin orbitals prescription compared favourably with a full-potential method. We find that testing theory against the experimental density of states is problematic. Our calculations also indicate that the spin density is sensitive to the treatment of the 5p electrons.