Investigation of the electronic properties of CeRu2 by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and circular magnetic dichroism

CeRu2 is a superconductor of type 2 (critical temperature at 6.2 K) with a peculiar electronic structure. In order to shed some light on these exotic properties of CeRu2, we propose to analyze the Ce-L2,3 absorption edges by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD), which probe the Ce 5d electrons. The latter contribute to the metallic bond and are highly sensitive to the electronic structure. We propose to evidence a possible modification of the hybridization of the 4f electrons when going through the critical temperature on the ID12 beamline.