Spin polarization and structure of molecular oxygen adsorbed on Fe(1 1 0)

We investigated the structural and magnetic properties of Fe(1 1 0) for molecular oxygen adsorption at room temperature. For the c(2 × 2) and c(3 × 1) superstructures, spin-polarized secondary electron emission (SPSEE) induced by protons and electrons reveals a nearly unchanged polarization compared to clean Fe(1 1 0). An appreciable decrease in polarization is found for the disordered layer of oxygen at a coverage Θ ≈ 1. This decrease is more pronounced for the spin polarization determined by electron capture (EC) to excited atomic He levels after grazing scattering. From a comparison of data obtained by proton-induced SPSEE and spin-polarized EC we conclude that the polarization at the vacuum boundary vanishes for an oxygen coverage Θ ≈ 1 while the polarization in the underlying Fe substrate layers is hardly changed.