217 research outputs found
Interface Engineering to Create a Strong Spin Filter Contact to Silicon
Integrating epitaxial and ferromagnetic Europium Oxide (EuO) directly on
silicon is a perfect route to enrich silicon nanotechnology with spin filter
functionality.
To date, the inherent chemical reactivity between EuO and Si has prevented a
heteroepitaxial integration without significant contaminations of the interface
with Eu silicides and Si oxides.
We present a solution to this long-standing problem by applying two
complementary passivation techniques for the reactive EuO/Si interface:
() an hydrogen-Si passivation and () the
application of oxygen-protective Eu monolayers --- without using any additional
buffer layers.
By careful chemical depth profiling of the oxide-semiconductor interface via
hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, we show how to systematically minimize
both Eu silicide and Si oxide formation to the sub-monolayer regime --- and how
to ultimately interface-engineer chemically clean, heteroepitaxial and
ferromagnetic EuO/Si in order to create a strong spin filter contact to
silicon.Comment: 11 pages of scientific paper, 10 high-resolution color figures.
Supplemental information on the thermodynamic problem available (PDF).
High-resolution abstract graphic available (PNG). Original research (2016
Photoemission Electron Microscopy as a tool for the investigation of optical near fields
Photoemission electron microscopy was used to image the electrons
photoemitted from specially tailored Ag nanoparticles deposited on a Si
substrate (with its native oxide SiO). Photoemission was induced by
illumination with a Hg UV-lamp (photon energy cutoff eV,
wavelength nm) and with a Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser
( eV, nm, pulse width below 200 fs),
respectively. While homogeneous photoelectron emission from the metal is
observed upon illumination at energies above the silver plasmon frequency, at
lower photon energies the emission is localized at tips of the structure. This
is interpreted as a signature of the local electrical field therefore providing
a tool to map the optical near field with the resolution of emission electron
microscopy.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Physical Review Letter
Influence of anti-site disorder and electron-electron correlations on the electronic structure of CeMnNi
CeMnNi exhibits an unusually large spin polarization, but its origin has
baffled researchers for more than a decade. We use bulk sensitive hard x-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) and density functional theory based on the
Green's function technique to demonstrate the importance of electron-electron
correlations of both the Ni 3 () and Mn 3 () electrons in
explaining the valence band of this multiply correlated material. We show that
Mn-Ni anti-site disorder as well as play crucial role in enhancing its
spin polarization: anti-site disorder broadens a Ni 3 minority-spin peak
close to the Fermi level (), while an increase in shifts it
towards , both leading to a significant increase of minority-spin states
at . Furthermore, rare occurrence of a valence state transition between
the bulk and the surface is demonstrated highlighting the importance of HAXPES
in resolving the electronic structure of materials unhindered by surface
effects.Comment: Manuscript and Supplementary material, 13 pages, 17 figure
Monitoring surface resonances on Co2MnSi(100) by spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy
The magnitude of the spin polarization at the Fermi level of ferromagnetic
materials at room temperature is a key property for spintronics. Investigating
the Heusler compound CoMnSi a value of 93 for the spin polarization has
been observed at room temperature, where the high spin polarization is related
to a stable surface resonance in the majority band extending deep into the
bulk. In particular, we identified in our spectroscopical analysis that this
surface resonance is embedded in the bulk continuum with a strong coupling to
the majority bulk states. The resonance behaves very bulk-like, as it extends
over the first six atomic layers of the corresponding (001)-surface. Our study
includes experimental investigations, where the bulk electronic structure as
well as surface-related features have been investigated using spin-resolved
photoelectron spectroscopy (SR-UPS) and for a larger probing depth
spin-integrated high energy x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HAXPES). The
results are interpreted in comparison with first-principles band structure and
photoemission calculations which consider all relativistic, surface and
high-energy effects properly.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Heusler alloy, electronic structure and
photoemissio
Raman and fluorescence contributions to resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering on LaAlO/SrTiO heterostructures
We present a detailed study of the Ti 3 carriers at the interface of
LaAlO/SrTiO heterostructures by high-resolution resonant inelastic soft
x-ray scattering (RIXS), with special focus on the roles of overlayer thickness
and oxygen vacancies. Our measurements show the existence of interfacial Ti
3 electrons already below the critical thickness for conductivity and an
increase of the total interface charge up to a LaAlO overlayer thickness of
6 unit cells before it levels out. By comparing stoichiometric and oxygen
deficient samples we observe strong Ti 3 charge carrier doping by oxygen
vacancies. The RIXS data combined with photoelectron spectroscopy and transport
measurements indicate the simultaneous presence of localized and itinerant
charge carriers. However, it is demonstrated that the relative amount of
localized and itinerant Ti electrons in the ground state cannot be deduced
from the relative intensities of the Raman and fluorescence peaks in excitation
energy dependent RIXS measurements, in contrast to previous interpretations.
Rather, we attribute the observation of either the Raman or the fluorescence
signal to the spatial extension of the intermediate state reached in the RIXS
excitation process.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Bulk Electronic Structure of Ni2MnGa studied by Density Functional Theory and Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
A combined study employing density functional theory (DFT) using the
experimentally determined modulated structures and bulk-sensitive hard x-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy on single-crystalline NiMnGa is presented in
this work. For the aforementioned modulated structures, all of the
characteristic features in the experimental valence band (VB) are in excellent
agreement with the theoretical VB calculated from DFT, evincing that it is the
true representation of NiMnGa in the martensite phase. We establish the
existence of a charge density wave (CDW) state in the martensite phase from the
shape of the VB near that shows a transfer of spectral weight in
excellent agreement with DFT. Furthermore, presence of a pseudogap is
established by fitting the near region with a power law function
predicted theoretically for the CDW phase. Thus, the present work emphasizes
that the atomic modulation plays an important role in hosting the CDW phase in
bulk stoichiometric NiMnGa.Comment: *Equal contributio
- …