Detecting halfmetallic electronic structures of spintronic materials in a magnetic field

Band-gap engineering is one of the fundamental techniques in semiconductor technology and also applicable in next generation spintronics using the spin degree of freedom. To fully utilize the spintronic materials, it is essential to optimize the spin-dependent electronic structures in the operando conditions by applying magnetic and/or electric fields. Here we present an advanced spectroscopic technique to probe the spin-polarized electronic structures by using magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering (RIXS) under an external magnetic field. Thanks to the spin-selective dipole-allowed transitions in RIXS-MCD, we have successfully demonstrated the direct evidence of the perfectly spin-polarized electronic structures for the prototypical halfmetallic Heusller alloy Co-2 MnSi. RIXS-MCD is a promising tool to probe the spin-dependent carriers and band-gap induced in the buried magnetic layers in an element specific way under the operando conditions.

Automated summary

Band-gap engineering is a fundamental technique in semiconductor technology, also applicable in the next generation spintronics using the spin degree of freedom. To optimize the spin-dependent electronic structures in operando conditions, an advanced spectroscopic technique using magnetic circular dichroism in resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering under an external magnetic field has been presented. The technique, known as RIXS-MCD, has successfully demonstrated direct evidence of perfectly spin-polarized electronic structures for the prototypical halfmetallic Heusller alloy Co-2 MnSi, showing promise in probing spin-dependent carriers and band-gap induced in buried magnetic layers in an element specific way under operando conditions.