Effect Of Submonolayer Mgo Coverages On The Electron-Spin Motion In Fe(001): Experiment And Theory

It is shown that the spin polarization direction of the reflected electrons on Fe(001) strongly changes with minute amounts of MgO. Our ab initio electronic band structure and spin-dependent electron reflection calculations reveal that the MgO-induced out-of-plane relaxation of the Fe surface layer is responsible for this behavior. Our study points toward the subtle feature that the major change of the spin-dependent electron reflection properties of the Fe(001) surface is already caused by the very first MgO coverage.