Vectorial Electron Spin Filtering by an All-Chiral Metal−Molecule Heterostructure

Chetana B. Viswanatha and coworkers demonstrated the general nature of the CISS (chiral induced spin selective transmission) effect even for point-chiral molecules on nonmagnetic surfaces. They uncovered that unpolarized electrons from the substrate’s sp-band become spin-polarized after passing through the layer of highly aligned point chiral molecules. Crucially, the magnitude of the spin polarization of the transmitted electrons depends on all three components of the electrons’ spin. In other words,  the spin selectivity is not just limited to the longitudinal out-of-plane direction as known for structurally helical molecules. This intriguing finding points to a high tuneability of the CISS effect that allows one to functionalize spin phenomena in molecular heterostructures even in the absence of magnetic or heavy metal layers. 

Paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00983