Vibrationally-mediated Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction as the origin of Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity in donor-acceptor molecules

Alessandro Chiesa; D. K. Andrea Phan Huu; Arianna Cantarella; Leonardo Celada; Michael R. Wasielewski; Paolo Santini; Stefano Carretta

arXiv · 2604.03210

Vibrationally-mediated Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction as the origin of Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity in donor-acceptor molecules

Alessandro Chiesa·D. K. Andrea Phan Huu·Arianna Cantarella·Leonardo Celada·Michael R. Wasielewski·Paolo Santini·Stefano Carretta

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Abstract

Chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) was recently observed in photo-excited donor-chiral bridge-acceptor molecules, but a predictive theory able to explain available experiments is still lacking. Here we show that low-energy torsional modes modulating hopping and spin-orbit coupling give rise to a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction between the transferred electron and the one sitting on the donor, producing high spin polarization for perfectly realistic parameters. Our model introduces a low energy scale in the spin dynamics which explains the magnetic field dependence observed in EPR measurements and predicts a non-trivial temperature dependence, as demonstrated by numerical simulations. The present theory lays the foundations for future test-bed experiments and for the design of applications in spintronics and quantum technologies.

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Alessandro Chiesa, D. K. Andrea Phan Huu, Arianna Cantarella, Leonardo Celada, Michael R. Wasielewski, Paolo Santini, Stefano Carretta. 2026-04-03. Vibrationally-mediated Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction as the origin of Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity in donor-acceptor molecules. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.03210

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