Spin-Polarised Electron Transport across an Abrupt or Partially Intermixed Fe/GaAs(001) Interface

抄録

  There has been significant controversy over the spin-polarised electron transport across Fe/GaAs(001) interfaces, particularly concerning the non-reproducible changes in the spin polarisation. We first overview these previous reports and then provide a solution using abrupt Fe/GaAs(001) interfaces. We demonstrate that an Fe monolayer at the interface controls the spin transport properties and show that abrupt interfaces do not allow sign changes in their injected spin polarisation. The abrupt interface offers reproducible spin transport properties, agreeing with our calculations based on the experimentally observed atomic interface structure. Such junctions are therefore ideal for future spin-transistor applications.