Spin polarization of Ni2MnIn and Ni80Fe20 determined by point-contact Andreev spectroscopy

We present point-contact Andreev reflection (PCAR) spectroscopy on Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) and on the half-metallic Heusler alloy Ni2MnIn. The thin Permalloy films are deposited on Si, the Ni2MnIn films on Si as well as on in situ cleaved (110) surfaces of InAs. A highly conductive layer under the ferromagnetic film almost eliminates a series resistance and thus facilitates the determination of the spin polarization from the differential conductance curves. We obtain a spin polarization of Permalloy of 35%. The spin polarization of Ni2MnIn depends on the substrate, presumably due to the growth of different crystal structures. It is shown that the surface sensitive PCAR spectroscopy cannot determine the spin polarization of the bulk material of half-metals where the degree of spin polarization strongly depends on the crystal structure. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.