Surface spin polarization in Fe(110) and Ni(110)

Abstract The magnetism of Ni(1 1 0) and Fe(1 1 0) surfaces was investigated by electron capture spectroscopy. He + and He 2+ ions impinged on the Fe(1 1 0) and Ni(1 1 0) surfaces under grazing incidence, and the degree of polarization of the light emitted by the neutralized projectiles was analyzed. Our measurements show that in Ni(1 1 0) minority electrons have a higher density of states at the Fermi energy than majority electrons, opposed to the Fe(1 1 0) case. From a comparison of our measurements we estimate the ratio between captured minority and majority electrons in Ni(1 1 0) to be similar as the ratio between captured majority and minority electrons in Fe(1 1 0).