We present a detailed study of the electronic structure and chemical state of high-quality stoichiometric EuO and O-rich Eu 1 O 1+x thin films grown directly on silicon without any buffer layer using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HAXPES). We determine the EuO oxidation state from a consistent quantitative peak analysis of 4f valence band and 3d core-level spectra. The results prove that nearly ideal, stoichiometric, and homogeneous EuO thin films can be grown on silicon, with a uniform depth distribution of divalent Eu cations. Furthermore, we identify the chemical stability of the EuO/silicon interface from Si 2p core-level photoemission. This work clearly demonstrates the successful integration of high-quality EuO thin films directly on silicon, opening up the pathway for the future incorporation of this functional magnetic oxide into silicon-based spintronic devices.

Nuclear hyperpolarization in the liquid state by dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has been of great interest because of its potential use in NMR spectroscopy of small samples of biological and chemical compounds in aqueous media. Liquid state DNP generally requires microwave resonators in order to generate an alternating magnetic field strong enough to saturate electron spins in the solution. As a consequence, the sample size is limited to dimensions of the order of the wavelength, and this restricts the sample volume to less than 100 nL for DNP at 9 T (∼260 GHz). We show here a new approach that overcomes this sample size limitation. Large saturation of electron spins was obtained with a high-power (∼150 W) gyrotron without microwave resonators. Since high power microwaves can cause serious dielectric heating in polar solutions, we designed a planar probe which effectively alleviates dielectric heating. A thin liquid sample of 100 μm of thickness is placed on a block of high thermal conductivity aluminum nitride, with a gold coating that serves both as a ground plane and as a heat sink. A meander or a coil were used for NMR. We performed H DNP at 9.2 T (∼260 GHz) and at room temperature with 10 μL of water, a volume that is more than 100× larger than reported so far. TheH NMR signal is enhanced by a factor of about -10 with 70 W of microwave power. We also demonstrated the liquid state of P DNP in fluorobenzene containing triphenylphosphine and obtained an enhancement of ∼200.

Multilayer approach to the quantitative analysis of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results: Applications to ultrathin Si O 2 on Si and to self-assembled monolayers on gold

We present an electronic structure study of a magnetic oxide/ semiconductor model system, EuO on silicon, which is dedicated for efficient spin injection and spin detection in silicon‐based spintronics devices. A combined electronic structure analysis of Eu core levels and valence bands using hard X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy was performed to quantify the nearly ideal stoichiometry of EuO “spin filter” tunnel barriers directly on silicon, and the absence of silicon oxide at the EuO/Si interface. These results provide evidence for the successful integration of a magnetic oxide tunnel barrier with silicon, paving the way for the future integration of magnetic oxides into functional spintronics devices. Hard X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy of an Al/EuO/Si heterostructure probing the buried EuO and EuO/Si interface. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Integrating epitaxial and ferromagnetic Europium Oxide (EuO) directly on silicon is a perfect route to enrich silicon nanotechnology with spin filter functionality. To date, the inherent chemical reactivity between EuO and Si has prevented a heteroepitaxial integration without significant contaminations of the interface with Eu silicides and Si oxides. We present a solution to this long-standing problem by applying two complementary passivation techniques for the reactive EuO/Si interface: (i) an in situ hydrogen-Si (001) passivation and (ii) the application of oxygen-protective Eu monolayers–without using any additional buffer layers. By careful chemical depth profiling of the oxide-semiconductor interface via hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, we show how to systematically minimize both Eu silicide and Si oxide formation to the sub-monolayer regime–and how to ultimately interface-engineer chemically clean, heteroepitaxial and ferromagnetic EuO/Si (001) in order to create a strong spin filter contact to silicon.

Detection of sub-THz spin cycloid resonances (SCRs) of stoichiometric BiFeO3 (BFO) was demonstrated using a vector network analyzer. Continuous wave absorption spectroscopy is possible, thanks to heterodyning and electronic sweep control using frequency extenders for frequencies from 480 to 760 GHz. High frequency resolution reveals SCR absorption peaks with a frequency precision in the ppm regime. Three distinct SCR features of BFO were observed and identified as Ψ1 and Φ2 modes, which are out-of-plane and in-plane modes of the spin cycloid, respectively. A spin reorientation transition at 200 K is evident in the frequency vs temperature study. The global minimum in linewidth for both Ψ modes at 140 K is ascribed to the critical slowing down of spin fluctuations.

We demonstrate the high-quality heteroepitaxy of ultrathin EuO films with bulklike ferromagnetism directly on MgO (001), an important step towards combining the spin-filter tunnel effect in magnetic insulators and symmetry-filter tunneling through single-crystalline MgO barriers. Despite a large compressive lattice mismatch, EuO grows fully relaxed on MgO (001) and adopts its bulk lattice parameter from the first monolayer on. This initial heteroepitaxial growth mode is discussed in terms of different electrostatic atomic configurations of the oxides interface. Single-crystalline EuO/MgO (001) thus can be envisioned as highly effective double spin-selective tunnel barriers for spintronics applications.

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