Using spin- and time-resolved XUV photoemission, researchers monitor the band structure evolution of Co during its phase transition.

The interplay between chirality and magnetism is a source of fascination among scientists for over a century. In recent years, chirality‐induced spin selectivity (CISS) has attracted renewed interest. It is observed that electron transport through layers of homochiral molecules leads to a significant spin polarization of several tens of percent. Despite the abundant experimental evidence gathered through mesoscopic transport measurements, the exact mechanism behind CISS remains elusive. This study reports spin‐selective electron transport through single helical aromatic hydrocarbons that are sublimed in vacuo onto ferromagnetic cobalt surfaces and examined with spin‐polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP‐STM) at a temperature of 5 K. Direct comparison of two enantiomers under otherwise identical conditions revealed magnetochiral conductance asymmetries of up to 50% when either the molecular handedness is exchanged or the magnetization direction of the STM tip or Co substrate is reversed. Importantly, the results rule out electron–phonon coupling and ensemble effects as primary mechanisms responsible for CISS.

Hemispherical deflection analyzers are the most widely used energy filters for state-of-the-art electron spectroscopy. Due to the high spherical symmetry, they are also well suited as imaging energy filters for electron microscopy. Here, we review the imaging properties of hemispherical deflection analyzers with emphasis on the application for cathode lens microscopy. In particular, it turns out that aberrations, in general limiting the image resolution, cancel out at the entrance and exit of the analyzer. This finding allows more compact imaging energy filters for momentum microscopy or photoelectron emission microscopy. For instance, high resolution imaging is possible, using only a single hemisphere. Conversely, a double pass hemispherical analyzer can double the energy dispersion, which means it can double the energy resolution at certain transmission, or can multiply the transmission at certain energy resolution.

We generate terahertz (THz) transients by illuminating a few-nanometer-thick Ta/NiFe/Pt nanolayers with a train of linearly polarized 100-fs-wide laser pulses. The transients are ∼1-ps-wide free-space propagating bursts of electromagnetic radiations with amplitudes that are magnetically and optically tunable. Their spectral frequency content extends up to 5 THz, and the 3-dB cutoff is at 0.85 THz. The observed transient electromagnetic signals originate from the NiFe/Pt bilayer, and their amplitude dependence on the external magnetic field, applied in the sample plane, very closely follows the static magnetization versus magnetic field dependence of the NiFe film. For the same laser power, excitation with highly energetic, blue light generates THz transients with amplitudes approximately three times larger than the ones resulting from excitation by infrared light. In both cases, the transients exhibit the same spectral characteristics and are linearly polarized in the perpendicular direction to the sample magnetization. The polarization direction can be tuned by rotation of the magnetic field around the laser light propagation axis. The characteristics of our THz spintronic emitter signals confirm that THz transient generation is due to the inverse spin Hall effect in the Pt layer and demonstrate that ferromagnet/metal nanolayers excited by femtosecond laser pulses can serve as efficient sources of magnetically and optically tunable, polarized transient THz radiation.

Molecular interfaces formed between metals and molecular compounds offer a great potential as building blocks for future opto‐electronics and spintronics devices. Here, a combined theoretical and experimental spectro‐microscopy approach is used to show that the charge transfer occurring at the interface between nickel tetraphenyl porphyrins and copper changes both spin and oxidation states of the Ni ion from [Ni(II), S = 0] to [Ni(I), S = 1/2]. The chemically active Ni(I), even in a buried multilayer system, can be functionalized with nitrogen dioxide, allowing a selective tuning of the electronic properties of the Ni center that is switched to a [Ni(II), S = 1] state. While Ni acts as a reversible spin switch, it is found that the electronic structure of the macrocycle backbone, where the frontier orbitals are mainly localized, remains unaffected. These findings pave the way for using the present porphyrin‐based system as a platform for the realization of multifunctional devices where the magnetism and the optical/transport properties can be controlled simultaneously by independent stimuli.