Temperature Behaviour of a “Magnetic” Band in Nickel

The unoccupied Z 2 - d -band in Ni(110) has been studied as a function of temperature employing spin-resolved inverse photoemission. This band has only the majority spin states occupied at T = 0 and contributes therefore to the ferromagnetism in nickel. As a function of temperature, our data show majority and minority features merging together upon approaching the Curie temperature T c . This result indicates either a temperature-dependent exchange splitting vanishing at T c or–assuming a temperature-independent local exchange splitting–only a small amount of short-range magnetic order in nickel at T c .