XDS: a flexible beamline for X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy at the Brazilian synchrotron.

The majority of the beamlines at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source Laboratory (LNLS) use radiation produced in the storage-ring bending magnets and are therefore currently limited in the flux that can be used in the harder part of the X-ray spectrum (above ∼10 keV). A 4 T superconducting multipolar wiggler (SCW) was recently installed at LNLS in order to improve the photon flux above 10 keV and fulfill the demands set by the materials science community. A new multi-purpose beamline was then installed at the LNLS using the SCW as a photon source. The XDS is a flexible beamline operating in the energy range between 5 and 30 keV, designed to perform experiments using absorption, diffraction and scattering techniques. Most of the work performed at the XDS beamline concentrates on X-ray absorption spectroscopy at energies above 18 keV and high-resolution diffraction experiments. More recently, new setups and photon-hungry experiments such as total X-ray scattering, X-ray diffraction under high pressures, resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy, among others, have started to become routine at XDS. Here, the XDS beamline characteristics, performance and a few new experimental possibilities are described.

Reentrant valence transition in EuO at high pressures: beyond the bond-valence model.

The pressure-dependent relation between Eu valence and lattice structure in model compound EuO is studied with synchrotron-based x-ray spectroscopic and diffraction techniques. Contrary to expectation, a 7% volume collapse at ≈45 GPa is accompanied by a reentrant Eu valence transition into a lower valence state. In addition to highlighting the need for probing both structure and electronic states directly when valence information is sought in mixed-valent systems, the results also show that widely used bond-valence methods fail to quantitatively describe the complex electronic valence behavior of EuO under pressure.

Oscillatory interlayer coupling in spin Hall systems.

Many spintronics applications consist of ultrathin magnetic and nonmagnetic multilayers and require an in-depth understanding of interfacial magnetism and spin transport. Here, we study permalloy/copper/platinum multilayer systems. We find that magnetic damping, perpendicular anisotropy, and proximity magnetization exhibit correlated oscillations as a function of the copper thickness. We ascribe these observations to an oscillatory interlayer coupling between permalloy and platinum. Such interlayer coupling may have a significant impact on the performance of spintronics applications.

Unraveling 5f-6d hybridization in uranium compounds via spin-resolved L-edge spectroscopy.

The multifaceted character of 5f electrons in actinide materials, from localized to itinerant and in between, together with their complex interactions with 6d and other conduction electron states, has thwarted efforts for fully understanding this class of compounds. While theoretical efforts abound, direct experimental probes of relevant electronic states and their hybridization are limited. Here we exploit the presence of sizable quadrupolar and dipolar contributions in the uranium L3-edge X-ray absorption cross section to provide unique information on the extent of spin-polarized hybridization between 5f and 6d electronic states by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. As a result, we show how this 5f-6d hybridization regulates the magnetism of each sublattice in UCu2Si2 and UMn2Si2 compounds, demonstrating the potentiality of this methodology to investigate a plethora of magnetic actinide compounds.