ELECTRON-SPIN POLARIZATION IN BOTH MAGNETICALLY AND ELECTRICALLY-MODULATED NANOSTRUCTURES

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of electrons in realistic magnetic-electric barrier nanostructures, which are produced by the deposition, on top of a heterostructure, of a metallic ferromagnetic stripe with an applied voltage. The degree of the electron-spin polarization is found to be closely associated with this voltage, although the use of applied voltage itself induces no spin polarization effect. As a positive voltage is applied to the stripe the electron-spin polarization shifts towards the low-energy region and increases; it shifts towards the high-energy direction and reduces for a negative applied voltage. These results shown in this work imply that the degree of electron-spin polarization can be tuned by means of an applied voltage on the stripes of system, which may result in a practical voltage-controlled spin filter.