We present a systematic x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) study performed at the rare-earth $L_{2,3}$ edges in $R{\left({\mathrm{Al}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{Fe}}_x\right)}_2$ Laves phase compounds. The progressive substitution of Al by Fe reveals the existence of a non-negligible contribution of Fe to the rare-earth XMCD spectra. This contribution has been isolated and shown to be similar to the dichroic spectrum recorded at the Fe $K$ edge. These results open the possibility of monitoring the Fe magnetism in lanthanides-iron intermetallic compounds by probing the rare-earth $L_{2,3}$-edge x-ray absorption edges.

• Received 6 July 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.052412