Influence of a spin-polarized tip on the Fe(001) surface

A detailed study of ab initio calculations for an iron parallel electrode and a tip–surface system, using the localized spherical wave method and the supercell-slab approach is presented. The calculations show that within the medium inter-electrode distance range (about 2.9 to 5.7 Å) the interaction between two parallel electrodes has a strong influence on the local surface electronic structure, while the magnetic moment is almost constant. A tip induces changes of the specific surface states near the Fermi level. However, the spin-polarization of the tip shows no significant influence on the surface states