Soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectra have been investigated for different crystallographic projections of ${\mathrm{CrO}}_2$. Strong anisotropic orbital Cr $3d$ contributions and a change of sign of the XMCD signal is observed and attributed to $t_{2g}$ majority states near the Fermi level. Additionally, moment analysis exhibits anisotropic behavior in the projected spin contributions of ${\mathrm{CrO}}_2$ assigned to a strong magnetic dipole term $T_z$, consistent with an intrinsic magnetic easy axis behavior along the ${\mathrm{CrO}}_2$ [001] axis. A reduced projected isotropic Cr $3d$ spin moment has been interpreted in terms of hybridization with oxygen.

• Received 22 October 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.207203