Does a magnetic barrier or a magnetic-electric barrier structure possess any spin polarization and spin filtering under zero bias?

Abstract

In this letter, we have clarified that there is no spin polarization and spin filtering in a magnetic barrier structure as well as in a magnetic–electric barrier structure using our explicit expressions for electron transmission probability. Our results are found to be contradictory to those of A. Majumdar [Phys. Rev. B 54, 11911 (1996)] and G. Papp and F. M. Peeters [Appl. Phys. Lett. 78, 2184 (2001)]. We have shown the significant spin polarization and spin filtering observed by these authors were caused by a mistake in their transmission probability.