Comparison of hot-electron transmission in ferromagnetic Ni on epitaxial and polycrystalline Schottky interfaces

The hot-electron attenuation length in Ni is measured as a function of energy across two different Schottky interfaces viz. a polycrystalline Si(111)/Au and an epitaxial Si(111)/NiSi_2 interface using ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM). For similarly prepared Si(111) substrates and identical Ni thickness, the BEEM transmission is found to be lower for the polycrystalline interface than for the epitaxial interface. However, in both cases, the hot-electron attenuation length in Ni is found to be the same. This is elucidated by the temperature-independent inelastic scattering, transmission probabilities across the Schottky interface, and scattering at dissimilar interfaces.