Chiral control of electron transmission through molecules

TL;DR

This paper investigates how chiral molecules exhibit asymmetric electron transmission when excited by circularly polarized light, revealing a novel current transfer phenomenon influenced by molecular structure and coherence effects.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of current transfer in chiral molecules and models its role in electron transmission asymmetry under optical excitation.

Findings

Asymmetry in electron transmission can reach 10% for resonance transport.

The asymmetry depends on molecular bridge length and dephasing effects.

A simple tight binding model explains the observed phenomena.

Abstract

Electron transmission through chiral molecules induced by circularly polarized light can be very different for mirror-image structures, a peculiar fact given that the electronic energy spectra of the systems are identical. We propose that this asymmetry - as large as 10% for resonance transport- arises from different dynamical responses of the mirrored structures to coherent excitation. This behaviour is described in the context of a general novel phenomenon, current transfer, transfer of charge with its momentum information, that is outlined in terms of a simple tight binding model. This analysis makes it possible to account for the observed asymmetry in and off resonance, to characterize its dependence on the length of the molecular bridge and to examine effects of dephasing processes.