Physikalisches Kolloquium
April 24, 2007 at 5 p.m. c.t. in Hörsaal des Instituts für Kernphysik, Becherweg 45Prof. Dr. Friederike Schmid
Institut für Physik
friederike.schmid@uni-mainz.de
Prof. Dr. Concettina Sfienti
Institut für Kernphysik
sfienti@uni-mainz.de
I will discuss several recent developments in studies of magnetic nanostructures, complex materials, and buried interfaces using synchrotron-radiation-excited photoemission, with special emphasis on work in the soft x-ray regime at the Berkeley Advanced Light Source, but consideration also of some emerging hard x-ray experiments. Instrumentation that has been developed to carrying out multiple soft x-ray spectroscopies with varying degrees of surface sensitivity (photoemission, x-ray absorption, and x-ray emission/inelastic scattering) on a single sample will be introduced, together with future prospects for photoemission making use of much higher-speed detection. Then a new standing wave-wedge method for non-destructively studying buried interfaces in multilayer nanostructures will be considered. This method has to date permitted determining concentration and magnetization profiles through an Fe/Cr giant magnetoresistive interface, as well as layer-specific densities of states in a magnetic tunnel junction consisting of FeCoB/FeCo/Al2O3. This approach should also be useful in a variety of other interface studies, e.g. of liquid-solid interfaces. Application of the multi-spectroscopy experimental system to the colossal magnetoresistive oxide materials La1-xSrxMnO3 (x = 0.3, 0.4) will also be discussed. Finally, throughout the talk, the relatively new field of photoemission with excitation energies in the 5-15 keV range will be considered, including the possibility of band structure mapping or densities of states measurements with more bulk sensitivity.