Experimental and calculated magnetic dichroism in the Ho 3d x-ray-absorption spectra of intermetallic HoCo2.

Magnetic x-ray dichroism at the Ho ${\mathit{M}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ edge in the ferrimagnetic ${\mathrm{HoCo}}_{2}$ compound has been investigated. It is shown that dichroic effects can be deduced from pure local multiplet calculations and that the magnetic circular x-ray dichroism intensity allows a straightforward measurement of the magnetic moment carried by the investigated element. Furthermore, a formula giving the absorption cross section as a function of the polarization of light is developed to demonstrate that experiments performed with circularly polarized light also allow one to get information about linear dichroism.