Spin-dependent electron transport along hairpin-like DNA molecules

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that DNA hairpins exhibit a strong chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, with unique features like vortex spin currents and length-dependent conductance, revealing new insights into spin transport in chiral biomolecules.

Contribution

The study proposes a setup to directly observe CISS in DNA hairpins and uncovers unique spin transport phenomena distinct from other chiral molecules.

Findings

DNA hairpins show pronounced CISS effect with enhanced spin polarization using conducting loops.

Local spin currents form vortex clusters that reverse with electron energy switching.

Conductance and spin polarization increase with molecular length and dephasing, contrary to expectations.

Abstract

The chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS), demonstrated in diverse chiral molecules by numerous experimental and theoretical groups, has been attracting extensive and ongoing interest in recent years. As the secondary structure of DNA, the charge transfer along DNA hairpins has been widely studied for more than two decades, finding that DNA hairpins exhibit spin-related effects as reported in recent experiments. Here, we propose a setup to demonstrate directly the CISS effect in DNA hairpins contacted by two nonmagnetic leads at both ends of the stem. Our results indicate that DNA hairpins present pronounced CISS effect and the spin polarization could be enhanced by using conducting molecules as the loop. In particular, DNA hairpins show several intriguing features, which are different from other chiral molecules. First, the local spin currents can flow circularly and assemble into a number of vortex clusters when the electron energy locates in the left/right electronic band of the stem. The chirality of vortex clusters in each band is the same and will be reversed by switching the electron energy from the left band to the right one, inducing the sign reversal of the spin polarization. Interestingly, the local spin currents can be greater than the corresponding spin component of the source-drain current. Second, both the conductance and the spin polarization can increase with molecular length as well as dephasing strength, contrary to the physical intuition that the transmission ability of molecular wires should be poorer when suffering from stronger scattering. Third, we unveil the optimal contact configuration of efficient electron transport and that of the CISS effect, which are distinct from each other and can be controlled by dephasing strength. The underlying physical mechanism is illustrated.