Jan-Peter Wüstenberg et al 2009 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 084016 doi:10.1088/0022-3727/42/8/084016
Jan-Peter Wüstenberg1, Johannes Fischer1, Christian Herbort2, Martin Jourdan2, Martin Aeschlimann1 and Mirko Cinchetti1
Show affiliationsIn this study we investigate the influence of post-growth annealing on different Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al samples. We find strong changes in the geometric surface structure as well as in the element specific concentrations during the annealing process. These irreversible changes go in hand with characteristic changes in the electron spin polarization (ESP) at the surface: as observed in Cinchetti et al (2007 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 1544), the iron buffered sample shows the largest spin polarization at the Fermi level. The latter remains positive as a consequence of the reduced density of states for the minority carriers due to the predicted minority gap, which can be clearly seen for all samples above the proposed minimum annealing temperature of 400 °C. Above this temperature we observe a characteristic dip in the ESP as a sign of increasing structure quality. It appears at 0.6 eV binding energy and is consistent with a peak in the minority electron density of states seen in both experiment and theory.
79.60.Bm Clean metal, semiconductor, and insulator surfaces
73.20.At Surface states, band structure, electron density of states
68.35.B- Structure of clean surfaces (and surface reconstruction)
72.25.-b Spin polarized transport
82.65.+r Surface and interface chemistry; heterogeneous catalysis at surfaces
Condensed matter: electrical, magnetic and optical
Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
Issue 8 (21 April 2009)
Received 6 October 2008
Published 30 March 2009
Jan-Peter Wüstenberg et al 2009 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 084016
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