  The electronic structure and spin-dependent tunneling in epitaxial
Fe/MgO/Fe(001) tunnel junctions are studied using first-principles
calculations. For small MgO barrier thickness the minority-spin resonant bands
at the two interfaces make a significant contribution to the tunneling
conductance for the antiparallel magnetization, whereas these bands are, in
practice, mismatched by disorder and/or small applied bias for the parallel
magnetization. This explains the experimentally observed decrease in tunneling
magnetoresistance (TMR) for thin MgO barriers. We predict that a monolayer of
Ag epitaxially deposited at the interface between Fe and MgO suppresses
tunneling through the interface band and may thus be used to enhance the TMR
for thin barriers.
