Corbetta, M., Ouazi, S., Borme, J., Nahas, Y., Donati, F., Oka, H., Wedekind, S., Sander, D., Kirschner, J.
Magnetic response and spin polarization of bulk Cr tips for in-field spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy
Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 51, (3),pp 030208/1-3 (2012)
The magnetic properties of bulk Cr tips have been investigated by spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy (SP-STS). To extract the properties of the Cr tips, we performed low-temperature SP-STS measurements on a well-known model system: nanometric Co islands on Cu(111). Our experiments indicate the existence of uncompensated magnetic moments at the apex of the Cr tips, which rotate in the direction of
the applied vertical magnetic field and become aligned with it at approximately 2 T. We extracted a tip spin polarization of 45 % at the Fermi energy. We showed that the tip spin polarization can change with a modification of the tip apex.