Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves
Abstract Chirality has been a property of central importance in physics, chemistry and biology for more than a century. Recently, electrons were found to become spin polarized after transmitting through chiral molecules, crystals, and their hybrids. This phenomenon, called chirality-induced spin sel...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40884-9 |
| _version_ | 1797558130618400768 |
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| author | Yuwaraj Adhikari Tianhan Liu Hailong Wang Zhenqi Hua Haoyang Liu Eric Lochner Pedro Schlottmann Binghai Yan Jianhua Zhao Peng Xiong |
| author_facet | Yuwaraj Adhikari Tianhan Liu Hailong Wang Zhenqi Hua Haoyang Liu Eric Lochner Pedro Schlottmann Binghai Yan Jianhua Zhao Peng Xiong |
| author_sort | Yuwaraj Adhikari |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Chirality has been a property of central importance in physics, chemistry and biology for more than a century. Recently, electrons were found to become spin polarized after transmitting through chiral molecules, crystals, and their hybrids. This phenomenon, called chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS), presents broad application potentials and far-reaching fundamental implications involving intricate interplays among structural chirality, topological states, and electronic spin and orbitals. However, the microscopic picture of how chiral geometry influences electronic spin remains elusive, given the negligible spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in organic molecules. In this work, we address this issue via a direct comparison of magnetoconductance (MC) measurements on magnetic semiconductor-based chiral molecular spin valves with normal metal electrodes of contrasting SOC strengths. The experiment reveals that a heavy-metal electrode provides SOC to convert the orbital polarization induced by the chiral molecular structure to spin polarization. Our results illustrate the essential role of SOC in the metal electrode for the CISS spin valve effect. A tunneling model with a magnetochiral modulation of the potential barrier is shown to quantitatively account for the unusual transport behavior. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:26:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3470f54811e142758d6895d041e52946 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:26:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-3470f54811e142758d6895d041e529462023-11-20T10:09:39ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-08-011411910.1038/s41467-023-40884-9Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valvesYuwaraj Adhikari0Tianhan Liu1Hailong Wang2Zhenqi Hua3Haoyang Liu4Eric Lochner5Pedro Schlottmann6Binghai Yan7Jianhua Zhao8Peng Xiong9Department of Physics, Florida State UniversityDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityState Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of SciencesDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityDepartment of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of ScienceState Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of SciencesDepartment of Physics, Florida State UniversityAbstract Chirality has been a property of central importance in physics, chemistry and biology for more than a century. Recently, electrons were found to become spin polarized after transmitting through chiral molecules, crystals, and their hybrids. This phenomenon, called chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS), presents broad application potentials and far-reaching fundamental implications involving intricate interplays among structural chirality, topological states, and electronic spin and orbitals. However, the microscopic picture of how chiral geometry influences electronic spin remains elusive, given the negligible spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in organic molecules. In this work, we address this issue via a direct comparison of magnetoconductance (MC) measurements on magnetic semiconductor-based chiral molecular spin valves with normal metal electrodes of contrasting SOC strengths. The experiment reveals that a heavy-metal electrode provides SOC to convert the orbital polarization induced by the chiral molecular structure to spin polarization. Our results illustrate the essential role of SOC in the metal electrode for the CISS spin valve effect. A tunneling model with a magnetochiral modulation of the potential barrier is shown to quantitatively account for the unusual transport behavior.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40884-9 |
| spellingShingle | Yuwaraj Adhikari Tianhan Liu Hailong Wang Zhenqi Hua Haoyang Liu Eric Lochner Pedro Schlottmann Binghai Yan Jianhua Zhao Peng Xiong Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves Nature Communications |
| title | Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| title_full | Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| title_fullStr | Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| title_short | Interplay of structural chirality, electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| title_sort | interplay of structural chirality electron spin and topological orbital in chiral molecular spin valves |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40884-9 |
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