Vollmer, R., Etzkorn, M., Anil Kumar, P. S., Ibach, H., Kirschner, J.
Spin-wave excitations observed by spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy: A new method for the investigation of surface- and thin-film spin waves on the atomic scale
Thin Solid Films 464-465, pp 42-47 (2004)
Spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy (SPEELS) is a unique tool to determine the spin-wave dispersion of ultrathin films and surfaces over the whole Brillouin zone. Ultrathin Co films on Cu(001) show well-defined spin-wave loss peaks in the SPEEL spectra. For 3 ML Fe films on 1 ML Co/Cu(001) the spin-wave peaks are much broader compared to the Co case but show dispersion. In 5-ML-thick bcc Fe films on W(110), a very broad feature assigned to spin-wave excitation was observed as well, which, however, does not show significant dispersion in the investigated range of large wavevectors.