Direct evidence of the existence of field-induced canted sperimagnets detected by X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism

In the present paper we study the magnetic phase diagram of an Er1-xFex amorphous alloy close to the compensation temperature by means of X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD). Temperature-dependent XMCD studies have allowed us to determine independently the magnetic moment of Er and Fe subnetworks. These microscopic results compare satisfactorily with macroscopic magnetization data. Field dependent XMCD experiments performed close to T-comp have unambiguously proven the existence of field-induced canted sperimagnetic structures, which had been theoretically predicted but had yet to be proven experimentally.