  We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in a system composed of
a ferromagnetic Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) tip coupled to an adsorbed
atom (adatom) on a host surface. Electrons can tunnel directly from the tip to
the surface or via the adatom. Since the tip is ferromagnetic and the host
surface (metal or semiconductor) is non-magnetic we obtain a spin-diode effect
when the adatom is in the regime of single occupancy. This effect leads to an
unpolarized current for direct bias (V > 0) and polarized current for reverse
(V < 0) bias voltages, if the tip is nearby the adatom. Within the
nonequilibrium Keldysh technique we analyze the interplay between the lateral
displacement of the tip and the intra adatom Coulomb interaction on the
spindiode effect. As the tip moves away from the adatom the spin-diode effect
vanishes and the currents become polarized for both V > 0 and V < 0. We also
find an imbalance between the up and down spin populations in the adatom, which
can be tuned by the tip position and the bias. Finally, due to the presence of
the adsorbate on the surface, we observe spin-resolved Friedel oscillations in
the current, which reflects the oscillations in the calculated LDOS of the
subsystem surface+adatom.
