Magnetic circular dichroism in cobalt films observed with scanning-tunneling-microscope-excited fluorescence

Abstract

We report on experiments showing that magnetism can be probed by means of the circular polarization of the fluorescence that is excited when charge carriers are injected into a magnetic surface with the tip of scanning tunneling microscope. We attribute this result to the interplay of the spin-orbit and the exchange interactions which gives rise to coupling between the electron-spin polarization of the valence bands of the ferromagnet and the photon spin. © 1994 The American Physical Society.