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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(5), 2014

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4974

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Direct observation of half-metallicity in the Heusler compound Co2MnSi

Journal article published in 2014 by Martin Jourdan ORCID, J. Minár, J. Braun, Alexander Kronenberg, S. Chadov, B. Balke, A. Gloskovskii, M. Kolbe, Hans-Joachim Elmers ORCID, Gerhard Schönhense, H. Ebert, Claudia Felser, Mathias Kläui ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Ferromagnetic thin films of Heusler compounds are highly relevant for spintronic applications owing to their predicted half-metallicity, that is, 100% spin polarization at the Fermi energy. However, experimental evidence for this property is scarce. Here we investigate epitaxial thin films of the compound Co2MnSi in situ by ultraviolet-photoemission spectroscopy, taking advantage of a novel multi-channel spin filter. By this surface sensitive method, an exceptionally large spin polarization of (93(-11)(+7)) % at room temperature is observed directly. As a more bulk sensitive method, additional ex situ spin-integrated high energy X-ray photoemission spectroscopy experiments are performed. All experimental results are compared with advanced band structure and photoemission calculations which include surface effects. Excellent agreement is obtained with calculations, which show a highly spin polarized bulk-like surface resonance ingrained in a half metallic bulk band structure.