Resonances and Magnetic Circular Dichroism in Valence-Band Photoemission Predicted at Ni 2p Threshold for Ferromagnetic Nickel

We report the calculation of the 3 d X-ray photoemission spectrum (3 d XPS) in ferromagnetic Ni at the Ni 2 p threshold energy with circularly polarized light on the basis of an extended Anderson model, which includes intraatomic multipole electron-electron interactions. Our study predicts that a strong resonance and a magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) pattern characteristic of the resonant photoemission 3 d 8 +ω→2 p 5 3 d 9 →3 d 7 + ε appear with increasing incident photon energy across the satellite region of the Ni 2 p 3/2 absorption. We consequently propose a new critical check of the existence of 3 d 8 (“two-hole bound state”) in the initial state, which has been discussed to explain the Ni 2 p X-ray absorption and its MCD, and 3 d 7 (“three-hole bound state”) in the final state of 3 d XPS.