Exchange Splitting and Charge Carrier Spin Polarization in EuO

P. G. Steeneken; L. H. Tjeng; I. Elfimov; G. A. Sawatzky; G. Ghiringhelli; N. B. Brookes; D.-J. Huang

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.047201

Exchange Splitting and Charge Carrier Spin Polarization in EuO

P. G. Steeneken, L. H. Tjeng, I. Elfimov, G. A. Sawatzky, G. Ghiringhelli, N. B. Brookes, and D.-J. Huang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 047201 – Published 11 January 2002

Abstract

High quality thin films of the ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO have been prepared and were studied using a new form of spin-resolved spectroscopy. We observed large changes in the electronic structure across the Curie and metal-insulator transition temperature. We found that these are caused by the exchange splitting of the conduction band in the ferromagnetic state, which is as large as 0.6 eV. We also present strong evidence that the bottom of the conduction band consists mainly of majority spins. This implies that doped charge carriers in EuO are practically fully spin polarized.

Received 28 May 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.047201

Authors & Affiliations

P. G. Steeneken¹, L. H. Tjeng^1,2, I. Elfimov¹, G. A. Sawatzky¹, G. Ghiringhelli³, N. B. Brookes⁴, and D.-J. Huang⁵

¹Solid State Physics Laboratory, Materials Science Centre, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
²II. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Straße 77, D-50937 Köln, Germany
³Dipartimento di Fisica, INFM-Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B.P. 220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France
⁵Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, No. 1 R&D VI, Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Hsinchu 30077, Taiwan