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- Title
Spin polarization in half-metals probed by femtosecond spin excitation.
- Authors
Müller, Georg M.; Walowski, Jakob; Djordjevic, Marija; Gou-Xing Miao; Gupta, Arunava; Ramos, Ana V.; Gehrke, Kai; Moshnyaga, Vasily; Samwer, Konrad; Schmalhorst, Jan; Thomas, Andy; Hütten, Andreas; Reiss, Günter; Moodera, Jagadeesh S.; Münzenberg, Markus
- Abstract
Knowledge of the spin polarization is of fundamental importance for the use of a material in spintronics applications. Here, we used femtosecond optical excitation of half-metals to distinguish between half-metallic and metallic properties. Because the direct energy transfer by Elliot–Yafet scattering is blocked in a half-metal, the demagnetization time is a measure for the degree of half-metallicity. We propose that this characteristic enables us vice versa to establish a novel and fast characterization tool for this highly important material class used in spin-electronic devices. The technique has been applied to a variety of materials where the spin polarization at the Fermi level ranges from 45 to 98%: Ni, Co2MnSi, Fe3O4, La0.66Sr0.33MnO3 and CrO2.
- Subjects
POLARIZATION (Electricity); ENERGY storage; NANOTECHNOLOGY; FEMTOCHEMISTRY; SPINTRONICS; METALLURGY
- Publication
Nature Materials, 2009, Vol 8, Issue 1, p56
- ISSN
1476-1122
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nmat2341