Theory of spin-polarized secondary electrons in transition metals

We show that in contrast to the secondary-electron intensity distribution, the spin polarization, P(E), yields useful information about the electron-electron interaction. The ratio of lifetimes of majority- to minority-spin electrons can be determined directly from the measured values of P(E) by ${\mathrm{\tau }}_{\mathrm{\uparrow }}$(E) / ${\mathrm{\tau }}_{\mathrm{\downarrow }}$(E) = 1-${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ / 1+${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{b}}$ 1+P(E) / 1-P(E), where ${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ is the bulk magnetization.