Observation of a high spin polarization of secondary electrons from single crystal Fe and Co

The spin polarization of secondary electrons with nearly zero kinetic energy from Fe (100) and Co (10$\text{1}$0), excited with photons of energy between 20 and 60 eV, was found to be 45%±5% for Fe and 35%±5% for Co. This value is higher than the average valence band spin polarization P_b=n_b/n=2.2/8=27% and 1.7/9=19% for Fe and Co, respectively. With increasing kinetic energy, the spin polarization of the secondaries decreases to the value of P_b within the first 5 eV, remaining constant (within statistical error) at higher kinetic energies. As a spin dependent scattering process we propose excitations within the d-bands, which can be shown to be asymmetric with respect to the electron spin. The high net spin polarization of the slowest emitted electrons is obtained by filtering out monitory-spin electrons at the vacuum barrier.