Calculated electronic and transport properties of Fe/GaAs/Fe(0 0 1) tunnel junctions

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe/GaAs/Fe (0 0 1) tunnel junction have been studied using a first-principles Greenʹs function technique, based on the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method in its atomic spheres approximation, in conjunction with the coherent potential approximation to describe the disorder effects such as the interdiffusion at the interface. The results show that at the Fe/GaAs interface there is a charge transfer from iron to the semiconductor region and an enhancement of Fe magnetic moment. The magnetic properties are found to be sensitive to the interface terminations and influenced by the interdiffusion. The spin dependent transport properties are also discussed.