# Groupe de Physique Statistique

## Equipe 106, Institut Jean Lamour

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### Articles dans des revues à comité de lecture

 Continuum model for chiral induced spin selectivity in helical molecules Medina E., González-Arraga L.A., Finkelstein-Shapiro D., Berche B., Mujica V. J. Chem. Phys. 142 (2015) 194308 DOI : 10.1063/1.4921310 ArXiv : arxiv:1501.06201 [PDF] A minimal model is exactly solved for electron spin transport on a helix. Electron transport is assumed to be supported by well oriented $p_z$ type orbitals on base molecules forming a staircase of definite chirality. In a tight binding interpretation, the SOC opens up an effective $pi_z-pi_z$ coupling via interbase $p_{x,y}-p_z$ hopping, introducing spin coupled transport. The resulting continuum model spectrum shows two Kramers doublet transport channels with a gap proportional to the SOC. Each doubly degenerate channel satisfies time reversal symmetry, nevertheless, a bias chooses a transport direction and thus selects for spin orientation. The model predicts which spin orientation is selected depending on chirality and bias, changes in spin preference as a function of input Fermi level and scattering suppression protected by the SO gap. We compute the spin current with a definite helicity and find it to be proportional to the torsion of the chiral structure and the non-adiabatic Aharonov- Anandan phase. To describe room temperature transport we assume that the total transmission is the result of a product of coherent steps limited by the coherence length.