Magnetoresistance in Double Spin Filter Tunnel Junctions with Nonmagnetic Electrodes and its Unconventional Bias Dependence

Abstract

Spin filtering happens due to the discriminative tunneling probabilities for spin-up and spin-down electrons through a magnetic barrier and can result in highly spin polarized tunnel currents. Combining two such barriers in a tunnel junction thus leads to large magnetoresistance without the necessity of magnetic electrodes. We demonstrate the realization of such unconventional tunnel junctions using double EuS spin filter barriers with Al electrodes. The novel nonmonotonic and asymmetric bias behavior in magnetoresistance can be qualitatively modeled in the framework of WKB approximations.