Polarized electron reflection and diffraction are [13,12] also established experimental techniques, for the characterization of magnetic surfaces. The measurement is identical to PNR except for the substitution of electrons for neutrons, and the unavailability [10,11] of the Stern-Gerlach experiment, either for controlling the incident polarization, or for measuring the reflected polarization. The Stern-Gerlach experiment is [13,12] typically replaced by a Mott polarimeter [9,7,5], for measuring the reflected polarization. Electrons have significant advantages over neutrons for this purpose: an electron beam can be produced using a device roughly equivalent to a light-bulb filament, whereas a neutron beam is typically produced using a nuclear reactor. Also, the magnetic moment of the electron is nearly two thousand times that of the neutron.
Despite the long-standing use of polarized electron reflection as an experimental technique, as far as we're aware, there has been no attempt to develop a theoretical model of the process, along the lines of that used for PNR, in order to interpret the results in terms of the depth profile of the magnetization in the sample. Our intention here is to produce an analysis of polarized electron reflection similar to that of PNR by Blundell and Bland [2,3]. If you find the analysis interesting, a transcript of this talk can be found on the web at this address. The web version also includes more details of the derivations of equations, which are only sketched here. If you can stomach reading all that maths, we'd be grateful for any comments or suggestions. If you can't stomach reading all that maths, I suggest you make yourself difficult to contact around October, so you don't end up being one of the unfortunates who have to examine my thesis.