The Importance of Fe Surface States For Magnetic Tunnel Junction Based Spintronic Devices

In this article we give a review of our recent theoretical studies of the influence of Fe(001) surface (interface) states on spin-polarized electron transport across magnetic tunnel junctions with Fe electrodes. We show that minority-spin surface (interface) states are responsible for at least two effects which are important for spin electronics. First, they can produce a sizable tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with a single Fe electrode. The effect is driven by a Rashba shift of the resonant surface band when the magnetization changes direction. This can introduce a new class of spintronic devices, namely, tunneling magnetoresistance junctions with a single ferromagnetic electrode. Second, in Fe/GaAs(001) magnetic tunnel junctions minority-spin interface states produce a strong dependence of the tunneling current spin polarization on applied electrical bias. A dramatic sign reversal within a voltage range of just a few tenths of an eV is predicted. This explains the observed sign reversal of spin polarization in recent experiments of electrical spin injection in Fe/GaAs(001) and related reversal of tunneling magnetoresistance through vertical Fe/GaAs/Fe trilayers