Spin Polarized Photoemission Studies of Surfaces and Thin Films

Spin polarized photoemission is used to study the magnetic states associated with the clean iron (001) surface. These studies reveal evidence for a minority spin surface state in agreement with first principles calculation. Studies of the same surface with silver and chromium epitaxial overlayers reveal evidence for interface states derived from the states found on the clean surface. In the case of the silver overlayer the binding energy of this state is found to be dependent on the layer thickness of the overlayer. With chromium overlayers the binding energy for the same interface state does not show the same thickness dependence. However, a second interface state is observed immediately below the Fermi level.