Electron correlation effects in the exchange coupling at the Fe/CoO/Ag (001) ferro-/antiferro-magnetic interface

Angle resolved-Auger photoelectron coincidence spectroscopy (AR-APECS) has been exploited to investigate the role that electron correlation plays in the exchange-coupling at the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interface of a Fe/CoO bilayer grown on Ag(001). The effective correlation energy Ueff, usually employed to assess the energy distribution of core-valence-valence Auger spectra, has been experimentally determined for each possible combination of the orbital (eg or t2g) and the spin (majority or minority) of the two valence electrons involved in the Auger decay. Coulomb and exchange interactions have been identified and compared with the result obtained on the Fe/Ag system. The presented analysis reveals in the Fe/CoO interface an enhancement of the Coulomb interaction for the eg orbital and of the exchange interaction for the t2g orbital with respect to the Fe/Ag case, that can be associated with the stronger electron confinement and to the exchange coupling between the two layers, respectively.