By means of ab initio calculations and spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy experiments we show how to manipulate the local spin-polarization of a ferromagnetic surface by creating a complex energy dependent magnetic structure. We demonstrate this novel effect by adsorbing organic molecules containing pi(pz)-electrons onto a ferromagnetic surface, in which the hybridization of the out-of-plane pz atomic type orbitals with the d-states of the metal leads to the inversion of the spin-polarization at the organic site due to a pz - d Zener exchange type mechanism. As a key result, we demonstrate that it is possible to selectively inject spin-up and spin-down electrons from the same ferromagnetic surface, an effect which can be exploited in future spintronic devices.
@article{arxiv.1005.5411,
title = {Controlling the Local Spin-Polarization at the Organic-Ferromagnetic Interface},
author = {Nicolae Atodiresei and Jens Brede and Predrag Lazic and Vasile Caciuc and Germar Hoffmann and Roland Wiesendanger and Stefan Blugel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.5411},
year = {2015}
}