Simulation of spin-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy: influence of the magnetization of surface and tip

Abstract We develop a first principles method to compute the magnetic axis of a crystal surface from corrugation amplitudes of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy measurements. In this paper, we present the detailed electronic structure information of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic Mn overlayers on W(1 1 0), our model system for spin-polarized tunneling on the atomic scale. We also perform image simulations on all surfaces. It is shown that the images of Mn overlayers are very sensitive to magnetic ordering of the surface, and while a high magnetic contrast can in principle be obtained, surface corrugation itself is generally at the lower limit of image resolution.