A tetragonally distorted FeCo alloy is a ferromagnetic material exhibiting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) with a large saturation magnetization. Theoretical investigations have proposed that PMA in FeCo is caused by the hybridization of the certain orbitals near the Fermi energy ($E_{\mathrm{F}}$) in the minority-spin channel, but experimental verification of the electronic structure has yet to be performed. Here, using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SARPES) combined with first-principles calculations, we investigated the spin- and orbital-dependent electronic structure of tetragonally distorted FeCo films on a Rh(001) substrate. Our SARPES results show clear out-of-plane spin polarization at room temperature. Furthermore, by considering the matrix element effect and experimental geometry, we revealed that the spin-polarized bands around $E_{\mathrm{F}}$ of FeCo films possessing PMA are mainly composed of minority-spin $d_{xy}$ and $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals. Our findings provide deep insight into the emergence of PMA in rare-element-free magnetic materials.

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• Electronic structure
• Magnetism
• Alloys
• Magnetic thin films
• Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy