Evidence for the half-metallic ferromagnetic state ofFe3O4by spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy

The spin-dependent electronic structure of thin epitaxial films of magnetite, ${\mathrm{Fe}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_4\mathrm{}\left(111\right),$ has been investigated at room temperature by means of spin-, energy-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Near the Fermi energy $E_F$ a spin polarization of $-(80\mathrm{}\pm 5)\%$ is found. The spin-resolved photoemission spectra for binding energies between 1.5 eV and $E_F$ show good agreement with spin-split band energies from density-functional calculations.