Unconventional Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling on the Charge Conductance and Spin Polarization of a Ferromagnetic/Insulator/Ferromagnetic Rashba Metal Junction

Abstract

A ferromagnetic/insulator/ferromagnetic Rashba metal junction (FM/I/FRM) with both Rashba spin–orbit coupling (RSOC) and exchange energy splitting was studied theoretically. Two kinds of interactions in FRM generate the three metallic states in a FRM; the Rashba ring metal (RRM) state, the anomalous Rashba metal (ARM) state and the normal Rashba metal (NRM) state. The scattering method and the free-electron model are used to describe the transport properties of particles and to calculate the conductance spectrum and the spin polarization of current in the junction. The conductance spectrum in the applied voltage shows the prominent features at the boundaries not only for the three states of the FRM but also in the ARM state. In addition, the conductance in the RRM and ARM states is strongly influenced by both the thickness and barrier height of the insulator layer. We also found that the spin polarization obtains a high value in the ARM state and is not affected by the qualities of the insulator, unlike the RRM and NRM states. Obtaining high-spin polarization from FRM material can be useful to produce spintronic devices in future devices.

Keywords

• ferromagnetic/insulator/ferromagnetic Rashba metal junction
• Rashba spin–orbit coupling
• tunneling conductance