Search

There is increasing interest in the study of chiral degrees of freedom occurring in matter and in electromagnetic fields. Opportunities in quantum sciences will likely exploit two main areas that are the focus of this Review: (1) recent observations of the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect in chiral molecules and engineered nanomaterials and (2) rapidly evolving nanophotonic strategies designed to amplify chiral light-matter interactions. On the one hand, the CISS effect underpins the observation that charge transport through nanoscopic chiral structures favors a particular electronic spin orientation, resulting in large room-temperature spin polarizations. Observations of the CISS effect suggest opportunities for spin control and for the design and fabrication of room-temperature quantum devices from the bottom up, with atomic-scale precision and molecular modularity. On the other hand, chiral-optical effects that depend on both spin- and orbital-angular momentum of photons could offer key advantages in all-optical and quantum information technologies. In particular, amplification of these chiral light-matter interactions using rationally designed plasmonic and dielectric nanomaterials provide approaches to manipulate light intensity, polarization, and phase in confined nanoscale geometries. Any technology that relies on optimal charge transport, or optical control and readout, including quantum devices for logic, sensing, and storage, may benefit from chiral quantum properties. These properties can be theoretically and experimentally investigated from a quantum information perspective, which has not yet been fully developed. There are uncharted implications for the quantum sciences once chiral couplings can be engineered to control the storage, transduction, and manipulation of quantum information. This forward-looking Review provides a survey of the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of chiral-influenced quantum effects and presents a vision for their possible future roles in enabling room-temperature quantum technologies.

Chiral degrees of freedom occur in matter and in electromagnetic fields andconstitute an area of research that is experiencing renewed interest driven byrecent observations of the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect inchiral molecules and engineered nanomaterials. The CISS effect underpins thefact that charge transport through nanoscopic chiral structures favors aparticular electronic spin orientation, resulting in large room-temperaturespin polarizations. Observations of the CISS effect suggest opportunities forspin control and for the design and fabrication of room-temperature quantumdevices from the bottom up, with atomic-scale precision. Any technology thatrelies on optimal charge transport, including quantum devices for logic,sensing, and storage, may benefit from chiral quantum properties. Theseproperties can be theoretically and experimentally investigated from a quantuminformation perspective, which is presently lacking. There are unchartedimplications for the quantum sciences once chiral couplings can be engineeredto control the storage, transduction, and manipulation of quantum information.This forward-looking perspective provides a survey of the experimental andtheoretical fundamentals of chiral-influenced quantum effects, and presents avision for their future roles in enabling room-temperature quantumtechnologies.

We analyze from a theoretical perspective recent experiments where chiral discrimination in biological systems was established using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Even though intermolecular forces involved in AFM measurements have different origins, i.e., electrostatic, bonding, exchange, and multipole interactions, the key molecular forces involved in enantiospecific biorecognition are electronic spin exchange and van der Waals (vdW) dispersion forces, which are sensitive to spin–orbit interaction (SOI) and space-inversion symmetry breaking in chiral molecules. The vdW contribution to chiral discrimination emerges from the inclusion of SOI and spin fluctuations due to the chiral-induced selectivity effect, a result we have recently demonstrated theoretically. Considering these two enantiospecific contributions, we show that the AFM results regarding chiral recognition can be understood in terms of a simple physical model that describes the different adhesion forces associated with different electron spin polarization generated in the (DD), (LL), and (DL) enantiomeric pairs, as arising from the spin part of the exchange and vdW contributions. The model can successfully produce physically reasonable parameters accounting for the vdW and exchange interaction strength, accounting for the chiral discrimination effect. This fact has profound implications in biorecognition where the relevant intermolecular interactions in the intermediate-distance regime are clearly connected to vdW forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-reducing bacteria have adapted the ability to respire extracellular solid surfaces instead of soluble oxidants. This process requires an electron transport pathway that spans from the inner membrane, across the periplasm, through the outer membrane, and to an external surface. Multiheme cytochromes are the primary machinery for moving electrons through this pathway. Recent studies show that the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect is observable in some of these proteins extracted from the model metal-reducing bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. It was hypothesized that the CISS effect facilitates efficient electron transport in these proteins by coupling electron velocity to spin, thus reducing the probability of backscattering. However, these studies focused exclusively on the cell surface electron conduits, and thus, CISS has not been investigated in upstream electron transfer components such as the membrane-associated MtrA, or periplasmic proteins such as small tetraheme cytochrome (STC). By using conductive probe atomic force microscopy measurements of protein monolayers adsorbed onto ferromagnetic substrates, we show that electron transport is spin selective in both MtrA and STC. Moreover, we have determined the spin polarization of MtrA to be ∼77% and STC to be ∼35%. This disparity in spin polarizations could indicate that spin selectivity is length dependent in heme proteins, given that MtrA is approximately two times longer than STC. Most significantly, our study indicates that spin-dependent interactions affect the entire extracellular electron transport pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the chiral induced spin selectivity effect (CISS), which is the finding that the motion of an electron within or through chiral systems depends on the spin of that electron. The article explains that while the effect has been observed experimentally, developing a quantitative theoretical description has been challenging. The article also highlights the different types of experimental measurements that have been used to study CISS, including measurements of spin-dependent transmission, tunneling currents, magnetization, and magnetic domains. The article concludes by discussing the potential applications of CISS in spintronics, electrochemistry, and biology, and expresses optimism that further research will reveal the mechanism behind the CISS effect. [Extracted from the article]

The chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect is the capability of chiral molecules to act as spin filters, i.e. to selectively sort flowing electrons based on their spin states. The application of this captivating phenomenon holds great promise in the realm of molecular spintronics, where the primary focus lies in advancing technologies based on chiral molecules to regulate the injection and coherence of spin-polarized currents. In this context, we conducted a study to explore the spin filtering capabilities of a monolayer of the thia-bridged triarylamine hetero[4]helicene radical cation chemisorbed on a metallic surface. Magnetic–conductive atomic force microscopy revealed efficient electron spin filtering at exceptionally low potentials. Furthermore, we constructed a spintronic device by incorporating a monolayer of these molecules in between two electrodes, obtaining an asymmetric magnetoresistance trend with signal inversion in accordance with the handedness of the enantiomer involved, indicative of the presence of the CISS effect. Our findings underscore the significance of thia[4]azahelicene organic radicals as promising candidates for the development of quantum information operations based on the CISS effect as a tool to control the molecular spin states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of photonics and spintronics opens new ways to transfer and process information. It is shown here that in systems in which organic molecules and semiconductor nanoparticles are combined, matching these technologies results in interesting new phenomena. We report on light induced and spin-dependent charge transfer process through helical oligopeptide-CdSe nanoparticles' (NPs) architectures deposited on ferromagnetic substrates with small coercive force (∼100-200 Oe). The spin control is achieved by the application of the chirality-induced spin-dependent electron transfer effect and is probed by two different methods: spin-controlled electrochemichemistry and photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature. The injected spin could be controlled by excitation of the nanoparticles. By switching the direction of the magnetic field of the substrate, the PL intensity could be alternated.

Chirality-induced spin selectivity is a recently-discovered effect, which results in spin selectivity for electrons transmitted through chiral peptide monolayers. Here, we use this spin selectivity to probe the organization of self-assembled α-helix peptide monolayers and examine the relation between structural and spin transfer phenomena. We show that the α-helix structure of oligopeptides based on alanine and aminoisobutyric acid is transformed to a more linear one upon cooling. This process is similar to the known cold denaturation in peptides, but here the self-assembled monolayer plays the role of the solvent. The structural change results in a flip in the direction of the electrical dipole moment of the adsorbed molecules. The dipole flip is accompanied by a concomitant change in the spin that is preferred in electron transfer through the molecules, observed via a new solid-state hybrid organic-inorganic device that is based on the Hall effect, but operates with no external magnetic field or magnetic material.

Metal–organic Co(II)-phenylalanine crystals were studied and were found to possess magnetic properties and long-range spin transport. Magnetic measurements confirmed that in the crystals there are antiferromagnetic interactions between Co(II) and the lattice. The metal–organic crystals (MOCs) also present the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect at room temperature. A long-range spin polarization is observed using a magnetic conductive-probe atomic force microscope. The spin polarization is found to be in the range of 35–45%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]