2004/04/30 by J. Graf, Chris Jozwiak, C. Jozwiak +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #Magnetic properties of thin films #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.71.144429
published as Phys. Rev. B 71, 144429 (2005) · 5 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2005/04/29 · arxiv created 2005/05/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Spin polarized low energy electron microscopy is used as a spin-dependent spectroscopic probe to study the spin-dependent specular reflection of a polarized electron beam from two different magnetic thin film systems: Fe/W(110) and Co/W(110). The reflectivity and spin-dependent exchange-scattering asymmetry are studied as a function of electron kinetic energy and film thickness, as well as the time dependence. The largest value of the figure of merit for spin polarimetry is observed for a five monolayer thick film of Co/W(110) at an electron kinetic energy of 2 eV. This value is 2 orders of magnitude higher than previously obtained with state of the art mini-Mott polarimeter. We discuss implications of our results for the development of an electron-spin-polarimeter using the exchange-interaction at low energy.