Interface States in the Full-Oxide Fe3O4-MgO-Fe3O4 Magnetic Tunnel Junction

We present an ab-initio calculation of the electronic structure near the interfaces of the Fe3O4-MgO-Fe3O4 magnetic tunnel junction, and we give a clear description of the interface states which can exist in this device. We describe in particular the decay rate of these localized states on both sides of the interface. These interface states participate to the tunnel current across the MgO barrier and could be detected in magnetotransport measurements. Our results have been obtained with a code based on the density functional theory, with the local spin density approximation.