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J. A. D. Matthew'
Surface Science Diuision, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D C. 2. 0234
(Received 20 August 1981)
The spin dependences of the inelastic scattering cross section (inverse mean free path)
and the elastic scattering cross section are calculated for polarized electrons scattered
from oriented atoms in the Born-Ockhur approximation with a view to understanding
spin-dependent scattering in ferromagnets. In the medium-to-high-energy range() 100
eV) the elastic scattering for parallel spins is greater than for antiparallel spins, while the
inelastic cross section for parallel spins is less than for antiparallel. Elastic spin depen-
dence appears to be greater than inelastic, and the exchange effects fall off rapidly with
increasing energy. The relation of this atomistic scattering approach to solid-state models
rs d&scussed.
3326
25 SPIN DEPENDENCE OF THE ELECTRON INELASTIC MEAN .. 3327
where (foj) and (goj) are the direct and exchange scattering amplitudes at zero scattering angle averaged
over all possible orientations of the valence-electron wave functions, and A,«' (A, , ') is the inverse mean free
path for electrons parallel (antiparallel) to the majority-spin direction.
Applying the Born-Ockhur approximation we now obtain
—2(n„n,—
)g
J . 2E. ( I f I
)2
i
2 2 ~
4
AEJ.
(n„+n, ) g 1— +1+ (fl, )
In the regime where (bE~/2E) && 1, i.e. , the exci- compare the relative importance of elastic and in-
tation energies are significantly less than the in- elastic effects in the high-energy limit. Firstly, it
cident energy, the expression reduces to is important to note that the elastic scattering cross
section for parallel spins cr", , is greater than for
, n)y— (If
(n— antiparallel spins 0",, in contrast to the result for
)
2E inelastic scattering, where A t t' g A, «'. There is a
I
TABLE I. Calculation of 3 =(A I I' —k, , ')/(A, «'+1, »') for incident energies in the range
100 —500 eV for Ni, Co, and Fe.
Co Fe
Co Fe
)
f (
= [Z —F„(K)] 300, and 500 eV for the case of Fe [results for Co
and Ni will approximately scale with (n, n, )]. —
The values of S are positive as explained and rath-
+ f Z F„(K)]F„(—
K)
E er larger than the corresponding results for inelas-
ko tic scattering; although the approximation is cer-
tainly not valid for backscattering, the predictions
are of the same sign and the same magnitude range
0
as those obtained from phase shift analysis at high
where F„(K) is the x-ray atomic scattering factor. scattering angle assuming different exchange densi-
Modifying this result to the case of unbalanced ties for up and down incident spina above 100 eV
spins we obtain, to lowest order, (Davis et al. ' ). At zero scattering angle (forward
K (n,
ko iZ F„(K)
n, )F3g(K)—
where F3d(E) is the atomic scattering factor of a
I— scattering) the effect falls off as F. ', but at higher
scattering angles the effect falls off rather more
quickly with incident energy.
be written in the form 500 eV. I'3d(E) from ~ejss (Ref. 20); p„(I„) from
5= 2(n, n,
.2
)F3d(K)— Ref. 21.
kof.)
where f,
) is the conventional high-energy electron
(eV)
scattering amplitude. The formula is valid when
the exchange scattering amplitude for an electron
100 5.2X1-' 5.2X 10
is not too large in relation to the direct amplitude,
150 03AX-' 3AX 10-'
which through Eq. (5) implies reasonably high en- 200 2.6X10-' 2.2X 10-'
ergies and reasonably small scattering angles. 17.2 X 10-'
300 13AX 10-'
Table II gives estimates of S for scattering angles 500 10.0X 10-' 5AX10-'
8=0', 30' with incident energies 100, 150, 200,
3330 J. A. D. MATTHEW
will this occur to the same extent in both~ Screen- to plasmons are involved in these transitions, "but
ing may crudely be introduced into the Born- there will be interchange of oscillator strength be-
Ockhur approximation by replacing the bare tween the two kinds of process, so that the atomis-
Coulomb potential between electrons with a tic assumptions %111 glvc R rclcvRnt first-order cstl-
f ~~8,
screened Coulomb potential' of the form
where $1 18 RQ lnvcrsc scI'ccnlng dis-
tance. Following through the theory q in Eq.
mate. Implicitly the theory has assumed localized
1RthcI' than ltlncrant magnetism, which may Qot bc
unreasonable in the magnetic glasses.
It is also interesting to compare the results of
(4) will be replaced by (q +y f) ', and a screened
exchange amplitude goj will be of the form this one-electron model with the spin-dependent
plasmon scattering model of Helman and Balten-
E
— (21) spcI'gcI'. This thcoly RssUIDcs R IQagnctlzcd ffcc-
goj 2 zfoj &
*Permanent address: Physics Department, University of "J.Kessler, Polarized Electrons (Springer, Berlin, 1976),
York, Heslington, York Y01 5DD. Chap. 4.
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