Effect of irradiation with argon ions on elastic scattering of spin-polarized electrons from W(110) surface

The energy and azimuthal angle dependencies of the asymmetry of spin-polarized low-energy electrons ((00) beam) elastically scattered from a W(110) surface, have been studied before and after irradiated with slow Ar+ ions with energies of 200 eV, 500 eV and 1 keV at a fluence of 5 x 10(15) ions/cm(2). The energy dependence of the scattered electron asymmetries and intensities (for a fixed azimuthal angle of 55 degrees, which is determined by the angle between the normal to the scattering plane and the [ [GRAPHICS] ] direction in the surface of the W(110) crystal) and the azimuthal angle dependence of the asymmetry for two different incident electron energies of 14 eV and 23 eV showed a significant change after irradiation. The low-energy ion irradiation influenced the spin-polarized electron scattering more than the higher energy ions. The reason for the change of spin-dependent electron scattering is a quenching of coherent elastic multiple scattering, mainly due to lattice defects induced by implanted ions. Thus, these modifications demonstrate a technological way to construct spin-active interface with required properties. The agreement between experimental results and theoretical ones with and without multiple scattering provides a consistent explanation of the observations.