Highlights
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We present an overview of different chemical complexes studied by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD).
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We demonstrate the versatility of XMCD using a wide variety of representative examples.
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We describe the instrumental requirements for XMCD.
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We present in tutorial style the underlying theory of XMCD.
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We present the various computational tools available to calculate XAS and XMCD spectra (band structure, multiple scattering, and multiplet calculations).
Abstract
An overview of different chemical complexes studied by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) is presented. We intend to show to the chemistry community the possibilities of this technique for the characterization of magnetically interesting systems. The versatility of XMCD is demonstrated using a wide variety of representative examples, such as spinels, bionanomagnets, functionalized nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, (single) molecular magnets, butterfly molecules, photomagnetism, actinide materials, dilute magnetic semiconductors, and exchange spring magnets. The emerging technique of XMCD is shown to be of invaluable use in the design of magnetic particles and materials, and in the investigation of the remarkable diversity of systems that can be obtained and systematically tuned.
