Engineering chiral potentials on carbon nanotubes

Electrons transmitted through chiral molecules emerge with a preferred spin orientation due to a phenomenon now known as the chiral induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect [1]. Prior CISS transport experiments have primarily focused on measuring spin-filtered current in naturally occurring and soft-matter based chiral systems [2]. Metallic Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are known for facilitating ballistic charge transport over large distances without scattering. Further, chirality can be imparted onto achiral, metallic carbon nanotubes through polymer wrapping of the nanotube surface at fixed helical periodicity [3]. We plan to integrate achiral individualized SWNTs on a ferroelectric substrate that can be programmed [4] to be chiral and measure CISS effects under various programmed states of the ferroelectric. With this platform, chirality can be engineered at extreme nanoscale dimensions, enabling more controlled study of the contributing factors that give rise to CISS.

[1] Naaman, R. & Waldeck, D. H. et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 3, 2178–2187 (2012).

[2] Alam, K. M.; Pramanik, S. et al. Adv.Funct. Mater. 2015, 25, 3210−3218​

[3] Mastrocinque, F. et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 121, e2317078121 (2024).

[4] Yang, D. et al, arXiv: 2407.12757.