Abstract: Systems and methods for obtaining fast, spin-polarized electrons from an edge or tip or cusp of a target material, e.g., a sharp GaAs crystal edge or tip, or a cusp, which naturally incorporates optical reversibility. A source of fast spin-polarized electrons may include a target material including a sharp tip or tip portion or a sharp edge or a cusp, the tip or tip portion including at least two intersecting edges, and a pulsed light source configured to emit one or more light pulses focused on the sharp tip or tip portion or the sharp edge or the cusp to thereby induce emission of spin-polarized electrons from the sharp tip or tip portion or the sharp edge or the cusp of the target material.

Abstract: Systems and methods for obtaining fast, spin-polarized electrons from an edge or tip or cusp of a target material, e.g., a sharp GaAs crystal edge or tip, or a cusp, which naturally incorporates optical reversibility. A source of fast spin-polarized electrons may include a target material including a sharp tip or tip portion or a sharp edge or a cusp, the tip or tip portion including at least two intersecting edges, and a pulsed light source configured to emit one or more light pulses focused on the sharp tip or tip portion or the sharp edge or the cusp to thereby induce emission of spin-polarized electrons from the sharp tip or tip portion or the sharp edge or the cusp of the target material.

Abstract: Disclosed are a system, and method, for producing a directly extracted flow of preferred-spin-polarization-direction electrons. The present invention optically pumped electron spin filter system provides a mixture of, typically alkali, atoms and electron polarization direction enhancing buffer gas, to a, preferably, single chamber essentially enclosed space, into which essentially enclosed space is entered a predominately single handedness, preferably laser system produced, beam of photons which optically pumps electrons in atoms to a dark-ground state with a preferred-spin-polarization, that is maintained in the presence of an imposed magnetic field, which magnetic field is oriented essentially co-linear with said beam of predominately single polarized photons.