%0 Journal Article
%A Lezaic, M.
%A Mavropoulos, Ph.
%A Bihlmayer, G.
%A Blügel, S.
%T Scanning tunnelling microscopy of surfaces of half-metals: an ab-initio study on NiMnSb(001)
%J Journal of physics / D
%V 39
%@ 0022-3727
%C Bristol
%I IOP Publ.
%M PreJuSER-50607
%P 797 - 802
%D 2006
%Z Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012
%X We present a first-principles Study of the unreconstructed (001) surfaces of the half-metallic ferromagnet NiMnSb. Both terminations (MnSb and Ni) are considered. We find that half-metallicity is lost at the surfaces. After a discussion of the geometric relaxations and the spin-polarized surface band structure, we focus on topography images which are expected to be found with spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy. For the MnSb-terrninated surface we find that only the Sb atoms are visible, reflecting a geometric buckling caused by relaxations. For the Ni-terminated surface we find a strong contrast between the images of forward and reverse tip-sample-bias of 0.5 eV, as well as a stripe-like image for reverse bias. We interpret these findings in terms of highly directional Surface states which are formed in the spin-down gap region.
%K J (WoSType)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000236264200006
%R 10.1088/0022-3727/39/5/S05
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/50607