Fe-induced spin-polarized electronic states in a realistic semiconductor tunnel barrier
Résumé
Whenever iron is grown on Zn-terminated ZnSe(001) substrates, the most stable configurations of Fe/ZnSe(001) magnetic tunnel junctions show Fe-Se bonding and include a Fe-Zn intermixed interface layer, as suggested by spectroscopic measurement and confirmed here by calculations based on the density functional theory. The presence of the intermixed Fe-Zn layer at the junction strongly reduces the spin polarization of both the interface and metal-induced gap states within the ZnSe tunnel barrier.