Thin Film Magnetism: A Photoemission Approach

Elio Vescovo

National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) - Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA

Magnetic thin films constitute an important topic in current solid-state physics research. The reduced dimensionality (2D) of these systems produces physical properties that are very different from the ones of bulk materials (3D). Furthermore interest in this "new" physics is also driven by potential applications in magnetic technologies, most notably for magnetic memory read-write devices. Not surprisingly, a variety of experimental techniques have been recently developed to investigate the magnetic properties of thin films. Considering synchrotron-radiation-based techniques, spin- and angle-resolved photoemission (SPARPES) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) are possibly the most widely applied measurements in this field.

This talk will present SPARPES experiments performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory from a variety of magnetic thin films and magnetic multilayers. The aim is to offer a general overview on the possibilities of this experimental technique and its implementation at the U5UA beamline at the NSLS.  The electronic structure of (i) Fe(100) films, (ii) epitaxial FeRh films on W(100), and (iii) the MgO(100)/Fe(100) interface will be discussed in some detail.