Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance Driven by Resonant Surface States: First-Principles Calculations on an Fe(001) Surface

2006/10/31 by Athanasios N. Chantis, A. N. Chantis, K. D. Belashchenko +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic properties of thin films #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.98.046601

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 046601 (2007) · 5 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2006/12/09 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Fully relativistic first-principles calculations of the Fe(001) surface demonstrate that resonant surface (interface) states may produce sizable tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with a single magnetic electrode. The effect is driven by the spin-orbit coupling. It shifts the resonant surface band via the Rashba effect when the magnetization direction changes. We find that spin-flip scattering at the interface is controlled not only by the strength of the spin-orbit coupling, but depends strongly on the intrinsic width of the resonant surface states.

Citations

• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• Effect of interface states on spin-dependent tunneling inFe∕MgO∕Fetunnel junctions

Cited by

• Reversal of Spin Polarization inFe/GaAs(001) Driven by Resonant Surface States: First-Principles Calculations
• Anisotropic tunneling magnetoresistance and tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance: Spin-orbit coupling in magnetic tunnel junctions