Chiral Molecules and the Electron Spin as Spintonics Nano Devices

Spin based properties, applications, and devices are commonly related to magnetic effects and to magnetic materials. However, we found that chiral organic molecules act as spin filters for photoelectrons transmission,^[i] in electron transfer,^[ii] and in electron transport.^[iii]

The new effect, termed Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS),^[iv],[v] was found, among others, in bio-molecules and in bio-systems. It has interesting implications for the production of new types of spintronics devices^[vi],[vii] and on electron transfer in biological systems.^[viii] The basic effect will be explained and various applications and implications will be discussed.

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[[ii]] Mishra, D.; Markus, T.Z.; Naaman, R.; Kettner, M.; Göhler, B.; Zacharias, H.; Friedman, N.; Sheves, M.; Fontanesi, C. PNAS, 2013, 110, 14872.

[[iii]] Xie, Z.; Markus, T. Z.; Cohen, S. R.; Vager, Z.; Gutierrez, R.; Naaman, R. Nano Letters, 2011, 11, 4652.

[[iv]] Naaman, R.; Waldeck, D.H. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. (feature) 2012, 3, 2178.

[[v]] R. Naaman, D. H. Waldeck, Spintronics and Chirality: Spin Selectivity in Electron Transport Through Chiral Molecules, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 2015, 66, 263–81.

[[vi]] O. Ben Dor, S. Yochelis, A. Radko, K. Vankayala, E. Capua, A. Capua, S.-H. Yang, L. T. Baczewski, S. S. P. Parkin, R. Naaman, and Y. Paltiel, Nat. Comm. 8:14567 (2017).

[[vii]] K. Michaeli, V. Varade, R. Naaman, D. Waldeck, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 29, 103002 (2017)

[[viii]] I. Carmeli, K. S. Kumar, O. Hieflero, C. Carmeli, R. Naaman, Angew. Chemie 2014, 53, 8953 –8958.