6533b7d0fe1ef96bd125b643

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Transmission of electrons through ferromagnetic material and applications to detection of electron spin polarization

subject

description

The salient features of the total low energy inelastic electron scattering cross section in transition metals are described by a constant term σ 0 plus a term σ d that is proportional to the number of unoccupied d-orbitals. This simple model predicts that low energy electrons transmitted through a ferromagnetic ultrathin film acquire a transport spin polarization a(x). Using the ratio σ 0 /σ d as the only adjustable parameter, the model predicts the enhancement of the spin polarization of the low energy cascade electrons as well as a(x) in reasonable agreement with the existing observations on Fe, Co and Ni. A detector for electron spin polarization P based on the spin dependent transmission of electrons through ferromagnetic material is proposed which should be superior to existing P-detectors by 1 − 2 orders of magnitude