Investigations of Thin Films and Heterostructures with Low-Energy Muons

The first part of this chapter discusses the generation of slow muons (eV or less kinetic energy) to be used as a source of a tunable low-energy ( \(<\) 30 keV) beam for the study of thin films and heterostructures. The low-energy muon beam at PSI and its properties are presented. In the second part, several examples of investigations with low-energy muons are detailed: their use for nanometer-scale magnetic field profiling in different types of superconductors to obtain information about the magnetic penetration depth is shown. Different approaches to obtain this information are discussed. Other examples such as the study of (anomalous) proximity effects in hybrid heterostructures, the study of electron spin diffusion in spin valves or the study of the dynamic properties of polymers and single molecule magnets are presented.