X-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of Re 5d magnetism in Sr2CrReO6

We have measured Re 5d spin and orbital magnetic moments in the ferrimagnetic double perovskite Sr2CrReO6 by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism at the L2,3 edges. In fair agreement with recent band structure calculations [G. Vaitheeswaran, V. Kanchana, and A. Delin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 032513 (2005)], at the Re site a large 5d spin magnetic moment of −0.68μB and a considerable orbital moment of +0.25μB have been detected. We found that the Curie temperature of the double perovskites A2BB′O6 scales with the spin magnetic moment of the “nonmagnetic” B′ ion.