Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at the solid/liquid interface

We show strong indications for spin-polarized tunneling between a magnetic tip of a scanning tunneling microscope and a magnetic substrate at a solid/liquid interface under electrochemical conditions at room temperature. As a model system Co islands of several 100nm in diameter were electrochemically grown on Au(111). They show a perpendicular easy axis of the magnetization for two and three atomic layers of Co.