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Scattering of He ions off a magnetic surface results in the emission of circularly polarized light from a triplet transition. From the light polarization the spin polarization of the surface electrons can be deduced. We show that this electron capture spectroscopy (ECS) in the grazing incidence mode is an inherently surface sensitive method capable of measuring magnetic hystereses. The temperature dependence of the signal gives clear evidence that ECS is sensitive to the outermost atomic layer only. The signal follows a Bloch law with a surface prefactor of Asurf=3.33×10−5 K−3/2. The signal as a function of the applied magnetic field results in a hysteresis which is compared to a hysteresis obtained by means of the magneto-optical Kerr effect.

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