Spin-polarized electron tunneling through a quantum dot

Nonequilibrium Green's function is used to study spin-polarized electron tunneling through a quantum dot connected to two ferromagnetic electrodes with different orientations via two insulating barriers (FM/I/QD/I/FM). Intra-level Coulomb interaction in the dot is considered. General formula of tunneling current which can be used for arbitrary angle between the two electrodes' magnetizations is derived for both the weak and strong intra-dot interactions. We find that the transport current can be divided into two parts: the current with the spin-flip and the current without the spin-flip, which critically depend on the linewidth function near the Fermi level of the ferromagnetic electrodes. If a magnetic field is applied in the quantum dot, different behaviors will be found for weak and strong interactions.Physics, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)中国科学引文数据库(CSCD)0ARTICLE4583-5923