About

    The surface magnetism group (as a research team) was formed in 1982. At the beginning the group existed as a SPES laboratory. During this time we were creating a spin polarized electron gun and a SPLEED detector. The surfaces of solids were investigated with the help of these newly developed equipment. The main results of the first period were published in Soviet journals (in Russian). Great experience in the field of Spectroscopy of Polarized electrons was also acquired while carrying out common experiments in different laboratories in Switzerland, Germany, England and France.

    In the middle of the nineties we understood that for the research of surface magnetism and other spin effects it is necessary to create a more efficient and convenient spin detector. By that time it became obvious that only a Mott detector can provide the required efficiency and stability. But one question remained controversial for some time: Should we use a classical or a retarding potential detector. To solve this problem we chose a very simple (pragmatic) way. A Mott detector of each type was produced at the same time and tested under identical conditions. After these experiments we gave up the use of the retarding potential Mott detector because of its low space stability (high sensitivity to weak changes of the electron beam parameters) [1,2]. The experience acquired while doing this helped us to create a new generation of compact and efficient classical Mott detectors [3].

    Altogether we have made 14 Mott detectors till now and this number increases permanently. Synchrotrons in Italy (ELETTRA) and Switzerland (SLS) and laboratories at ETH (Switzerland) and the University of Regensburg (Germany) were equipped with our Mott detectors.

    Below we list the main publication devoted to experiments in which our Mott detectors were used [4-10].

1. A new compact 60 kV Mott polarimeter for spin polarized electron spectroscopy
V.N. Petrov, M. Landolt, M.S. Galaktionov, B.V. Yushenkov
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68 (12), 4385 (1997).

2. Comparative tests of conventional and retarding-potential Mott polarimeters
V.N. Petrov, M.S. Galaktionov, A.S. Kamochkin
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72 (9), 3728 (2001).

3. New compact classical 40 kV Mott polarimeter
V.N. Petrov, V.V. Grebenshikov, B.B. Grachev, A.S. Kamochkin
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74 (3), 1278 (2003).

4. Two - dimensional magnetic particles,
C. Stamm, F. Marty, A. Vaterlaus, V. Weich, S. Egger, U. Maier, U. Ramsperger, H. Fuhrmann, and D. Pescia
Science 282, 449 - 451 (1998).

5. Two-Step Disordering of Perpendicularly Magnetized Ultrathin Films
A. Vaterlaus, C. Stamm, U. Maier, M.G. Pini, P. Politi, and D. Pescia
Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2247 - 2250 (2000).

6. Imaging Precessional Motion of the Magnetization Vector
Y. Acremann, C.H. Back, M. Buess, O. Portmann, A. Vaterlaus, D. Pescia, and H. Melchior
Science 290, 492 - 495 (2000).

7. Spin Polarized Fermi Surface Mapping
M. Hoersh, T. Greber, V.N.Petrov, M. Muntwiler, M. Hengsberger, W. Auwarter, J. Osterwalder
Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena 124 (2-3), 263-279 (2002).

8. An Inverse Transition of Magnetic Domain Patterns in Ultrathin Films
O. Portmann, A. Vaterlaus, and D. Pescia
Nature 422, 701 - 704 (2003).

9. Spin structure of the Shockley surface state on Au(111)
M. Hoesch, M. Muntwiler, V.N. Petrov, M. Hengsberger, L. Patthey, M. Shi, M. Falub, T. Greber, and J. Osterwalder
Phys. Rev. B 69, 241401(R) (2004)

10. Energy analyzer for spin polarized Auger electron spectroscopy
V. N. Petrov and A. S. Kamochkin
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75(5), 1274 (2004).