2026/07/01 by Subhajit Sarkar, Oliver L. A. Monti, Yonatan Dubi
Engineering · Materials Science · Chemistry · #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Magnetism in coordination complexes #Photochemistry and Electron Transfer Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/jacs.6c07331
The chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect has been invoked to explain recent reports of differences in the time-resolved EPR signals between chiral and achiral molecules. However, the microscopic origin of these differences and their connection to CISS remain contested, particularly since these systems lack a metal interface. Here, we introduce an intramolecular spinterface-like mechanism that naturally arises within donor-chiral bridge-acceptor (D-χB-A) complexes and quantitatively reproduces experimentally reported observed spin polarization in time-resolved EPR studies. In our two-electron Lindblad model, the photoexcited charge-transfer electron traversing the chiral bridge exchanges with the residual donor electron, which acts as a localized magnetic moment analogous to an induced magnetic moment on an electrode surface. The resulting through-bridge charge current produces an effective solenoidal field at the donor-bridge interface, breaking spin degeneracy and directional symmetry, thus enabling spin-selective transport without invoking intrinsic spin-orbit coupling on the bridge. We show that the interplay among this current-induced field, donor thermalization (which breaks time-reversal symmetry), and bridge spin mixing yields tens-of-percent polarization over realistic experimental conditions and charge-transfer time scales, matching reported CISS signatures in triads and DNA hairpins. By explicitly resolving the dependence on solenoidal coupling strength, temperature, and spin-mixing rates, the model identifies the regime in which internal spinterfaces can generate robust CISS-like spin filtering. These findings demonstrate that CISS-like signals in isolated D-χB-A complexes are fully compatible with a spinterface mechanism, providing a unified conceptual framework for interpreting both device-based and molecule-internal CISS platforms.