Spin Dependence of Interfacial Reflection Phase Shift at Cu/Co Interface

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-dependent reflection phase shifts at the Cu/Co interface influence spin transport, using first-principles calculations that align well with experimental data and highlight the importance of interfacial distortion and image states.

Contribution

It provides a detailed first-principles analysis of spin-resolved reflection spectra at the Cu/Co interface, emphasizing the role of interfacial distortion and image states in phase shifts.

Findings

Good agreement between theory and experiment across a wide energy range

Interfacial distortion significantly affects spin-dependent phase gain

Image states near the Fermi level influence phase accumulation

Abstract

The spin dependent reflection at the interface is the key element to understand the spin transport. By completely solving the scattering problem based on first principles method, we obtained the spin resolved reflectivity spectra. The comparison of our theoretical results with experiment is good in a large energy scale from Fermi level to energy above vacuum level. It is found that interfacial distortion is crucial for understanding the spin dependence of the phase gain at the Cu$|$Co interface. Near the Fermi level, image state plays an important role to the phase accumulation in the copper film.