Electric transport in Fe/ZnSe/Fe heterostructures - art. no. 184442

The electronic structure. magnetic properties, and perpendicular electric t ransport in bcc wFe/ZnSe/Fe(100) heterostructures with Zn and Se terminatio n are discussed in terms of the fully relativistic spin-polarized version o f the screened Kortinga-Kohn-Rostoker method and the Kubo-Greenwood equatio n. It is found that different (Zn or Se) terminations cause substantial dif ferences in the interlayer exchange coupling, the magnetic anisotropy, and, most prominently, in the magnetoresistance. The most important result, how ever, is that the difference between the sheet resistances in the parallel and the antiparallel configuration becomes constant with increasing spacer thickness. This constant value depends on the type of termination and is es sentially determined by the interfaces.