  The magnetic and electronic nature of the gamma-Al2O3/SrTiO3
spinel/perovskite interface is explored by means of x-ray absorption
spectroscopy. Polarized x-ray techniques combined with atomic multiplet
calculations reveal localized magnetic moments assigned to Ti3+ at the
interface with equivalent size for in- and out-of-plane magnetic field
directions. Although magnetic fingerprints are revealed, the Ti3+ magnetism can
be explained by a paramagnetic response at low temperature under applied
magnetic fields. Modeling the x-ray linear dichroism results in a delta0 = 1.9
eV splitting between the t2g and eg states for the Ti4+ 3d0 orbitals. In
addition these results indicate that the lowest energy states have the
out-of-plane dxz/dyz symmetry. The isotropic magnetic moment behavior and the
lowest energy dxz/dyz states are in contrast to the observations for the
two-dimensional electron gas at the perovskite/perovskite interface of
LaAlO3/SrTiO3, that exhibits an anisotropic magnetic dxy ground state.
