Influence of plural scattering on the quantitative determination of spin and orbital moments in electron magnetic circular dichroism measurements

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Recent quantitative measurements of the orbital to spin magnetic moment ratio mₗ/mₛ in electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) experiments have given a mₗ/mₛ ratio that is larger than commonly accepted values. We demonstrate here that plural scattering may noticeably influence the mₗ/mₛ ratio. An equation is derived which describes its influence as a function of the spectral integrals of the plasmon scattering region and zero-loss peak. The influence of the electron-plasmon scattering can be removed when electron energy-loss spectra of the ionization edge are deconvoluted by the low-loss signal. For a bcc-Fe sample we obtain mₗ/mₛ=0.04 after plasmon removal. We conclude that the plural scattering should be considered when extracting quantitative information from EMCD measurements.