Observation of spin-polarized photoelectron diffraction.

Abstract

We report the first observation of spin-polarized photoelectron diffraction in core-level emission from antiferromagnetic KMn${\mathrm{F}}_{3}$. The Mn $3s$ multiplet splitting provides an internal source of polarized electrons, and spin-polarized photoelectron diffraction effects of up to 17% are seen in the $\frac{^{5}S}{^{7}S}$ intensity ratio. These effects are found to be very sensitive to both emission direction and temperature. Short-range antiferromagnetic order is found to persist up to approximately 3 times the N\'eel temperature.