Direct observation of local ferromagnetism on carbon in C/Fe multilayers

An element-selective investigation of magnetism on carbon in the vicinity of Fe atoms in a C/Fe multilayer is reported. We utilize resonant magnetic reflectivity of circularly polarized synchrotron radiation which allows us to distinguish unambiguously the local magnetism on carbon from that on Fe through individual core-level excitations. Clear magnetic signals of carbon are obtained by exploiting the standing-wave technique. Hysteresis loops of individually excited C and Fe atoms demonstrate ferromagnetism of C at room temperature with a moment of ≈ 0.05{μ B } induced by adjacent Fe atoms.