EFFECTS OF THE MIXED Cu/O LAYER ON THE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF Cu/EuO-BASED TUNNEL JUNCTIONS

Abstract

The spin-dependent transport properties of Cu/EuO-based tunnel junctions are investigated by means of the first-principle calculations combined with the non-equilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) method. It is found that the Cu/EuO-based junctions exhibit excellent spin-filtering effect. Furthermore, the mixed Cu/O layer enhances the tunneling of the majority spin through the EuO barrier for the junctions with Cu/O layers due to the fact that the valance-band maximum of the Eu-4[Formula: see text] states shifts to high energies with respect to the Fermi level for these junctions. These results permit the existence of the mixed Cu/O layer in Cu/EuO-based tunnel junctions and promote future applications of these tunnel junctions in spintronic devices.