Ab initio electronic and magnetic properties of 1 ML Fe/Cu(001)

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of 1 ML of iron on Cu(001) have been calculated using the embedding method within the density functional theory framework. The surface features will be described as concerns binding energies, dispersion and spin dependence. The changes in surface electronic states and magnetization, induced at the interface by the overlayer growth, will be evidenced, also analysing the electronic properties of the constituent elements of the system, clean substrate and unsupported iron monolayer. The different energy ranges of the two spin components in the Fe film reflect upon very different degrees of hybridization of these states with the substrate ones. This suggests that the overlayer states can be a spin fixed channel for conductivity, with interesting applications in devices in which the current should depend on the carriers' spin.