ALT EDITORS' SUGGESTION Consistent surface and bulk magnetic properties of MnBi6⁢Te10 observed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy 2 October, 2025 How similar are the surface and bulk in a magnetic topological insulator? The authors combine here surface- and bulk-sensitive x-ray experimental techniques (XAS, XMCD, XMLD) with a novel Fourier-based method to remove complicated backgrounds, and 𝑎𝑏 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜 multiplet ligand field theory (MLFT) modeling of the spectra. This combination shows that MnBi6Te10 exhibits nearly identical surface and bulk electronic and magnetic properties, with a single parameter set reproducing all the spectra. The introduced framework delivers background-resilient quantification of core-level spectra in layered magnets and provides constraints for models of exchange gaps in topological surface states. A. Tcakaev et al. Phys. Rev. B 112, 144406 (2025)

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