Magnetic x-ray dichroism in gadolinium metal

We present a calculation of magnetic x-ray dichroism at the L2,3 edges of Gd metal, which takes into account dipolar transitions to the spin-polarized conduction bands, as well as quadrupole transitions to the highly localized 4f states. The striking agreement with the data demonstrates the validity of the single-particle approximation in the whole range of energies, above the Fermi level, probed by the experiments. The quadrupolar dichroism is important in determining the pre-edge structure of the measured spectra. Results for the L2,3 edges of Ho are also briefly discussed.