title: Exploration of magnetic fluctuations in PdFe films.
abstract: We investigated magnetic phase transitions, magnetic anisotropy, and magnetic domains in Pd1-xFex alloys with different Fe concentrations x = 2.2-7.2%. The Curie temperature depends linearly on the Fe concentration in the regime studied. The magnetization is dominantly in-plane with a small out-of-plane remanent contribution. Resonant magnetic small angle scattering with circularly polarized x-rays tuned to the L3 resonance edge of Fe revealed a small angle scattering ring corresponding to magnetic domain fluctuations on a length scale of 100 nm. These fluctuations are isotropically distributed in the film plane and appear to have an out-of-plane component. On increasing the transverse coherence of the incident beam, the scattering ring decomposes in a speckle pattern, indicative of magnetic correlations on a length scale smaller than the x-ray coherence length of about 4 μm.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Experimentalphysik/Festkörperphysik, Fakultät für Physik and Astronomie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ewerlin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pfau
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Günther
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schaffert
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eisebitt
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abrudan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zabel
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry*; D016880:Anisotropy; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D008280:Magnetics; D010165:Palladium / Q000737:chemistry*; D044367:Phase Transition; D053838:Scattering, Small Angle; D013696:Temperature; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D010165:Palladium; D007501:Iron