SPIN-RESOLVED TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT PHOTOEMISSION FROM ULTRATHIN FENI ALLOY-FILMS

The temperature dependence of the electronic structure of FexNi1-x thin films grown epitaxially on a Cu(001) surface has been studied by spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy for concentrations of x= 0.47, 0.64 and 0.87. For all temperatures and concentrations studied we found that the minority spin component can be represented by the Fermi function. The low temperature spectra show a gap between majority and minority spin component which is vanishing when the Curie temperature is reached. In the Invar alloy film, the gap does not change in magnitude between 100 and 300 K.