Voltage Dependence of Spin Polarized Tunneling

A mesoscopic spin valve is used to determine the effective spin polarization of electrons tunneling from and into ferromagnetic transition metals at finite voltages. The tunneling spin polarization from the ferromagnet (FM) slowly decreases with bias, but drops faster and even inverts with voltage when electrons tunnel into it. A bias-dependent free electron model shows that in the former case electrons originate near the Fermi level of the FM with large polarization whereas in the latter, electrons tunnel into hot electron states for which the polarization is significantly reduced. The change in sign is ascribed to the detailed matching of the electron wave function through the tunnel barrier.