Silver induced chirality controlled spin filtration observed in ss-DNA functionalized with MoS2.

Abstract

Chiral molecules can exhibit strong spin-orbit coupling, which can result in a large spin polarization. This is due to the fact that the energy levels of the electrons in a chiral molecule are strongly influenced by the chiral structure of the molecule, which can result in the separation of the energy levels for electrons with different spin orientations. We report a controlled spin-selective transmission of electrons through 20 base-paired poly-cytosine molecules functionalized with MoS2 flakes on ITO glass via the quantum mechanical tunneling effect. A reversion in spin polarization was observed after the silver ions interact with poly-cytosine due to the strong coordination of Ag(I) with cytosine-cytosine (C-C) mismatches, indicating the formation of duplex structural motifs, as confirmed by the circular dichroism spectroscopy at room temperature. Manipulating the spin of an electron through such a small molecule merely controlled by special cations could pave the way for major advances in spin-independent charge transport, advanced bioanalytical system design, and related applications.