Magnetic circular dichroism is observed in inelastic x-ray scattering from $d$ core electrons in magnetically aligned gadolinium at incident photon energies resonant with the Gd $2p_{\frac{3}{2}}$ excitations. The dichroism is dominated by the magnetic interactions between the valence $4f$ electrons and the final state $d$ core hole. Unlike photoabsorption spectroscopy, but similar to core photoelectron spectroscopy, this method allows one to probe electron-correlation effects in the valence ground-state population.

• Received 12 September 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.R12673