arXiv subjects

Ernesto Medina

Publications and source records attributed to Ernesto Medina.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Wavelength-Selective control of Atomic Scale Au Contacts

We demonstrate wavelength-selective control of atomic motion in a mechanically controllable Au break junction. Excitation at $λ_{\mathrm{form}}\simeq 530~{\rm nm}$ drives gap closure and metallic bridge formation, whereas excitation at $λ_{\mathrm{rup}}\simeq 407~{\rm nm}$ drives neck thinning, bridge rupture, and subsequent gap opening. Unlike conventional optical switching in metallic contacts, where illumination primarily acts via thermal expansion, the present experiment reveals oppositely directed atomic drift at different wavelengths. Time-resolved conductance traces allow us to distinguish two dynamical regimes. In the tunneling regime, exponential conductance transients measure the drift velocity of the gap coordinate for both gap closure and gap opening. In the metallic regime, the Sharvin relation converts linear $\sqrt{G/G_0}$ transients into radial neck-growth and neck-thinning velocities of comparable magnitude. These results establish optically selected atomic drift as a mechanism for reversible control of metallic nanocontacts and provide a quantitative route to follow plasmon-assisted atomic rearrangements in real time.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Orbital Angular Momentum Textures and Currents in a Discrete Helix: Equilibrium and Linear Response

Recently, nonequilibrium orbital angular momentum in low-dimensional systems has attracted renewed attention. Here we introduce a minimal three-orbital tight-binding model for a single helical chain and show that chirality alone generates a momentum-dependent orbital-angular-momentum texture through Slater--Koster hybridization in the local basis $(p_r,p_ϕ,p_z)$, without requiring atomic spin--orbit coupling. In the single-helix geometry, the radial orbital texture vanishes identically, while the azimuthal and longitudinal components remain finite and arise from the odd-in-momentum $(p_z,p_r)$ and $(p_r,p_ϕ)$ sectors. As a result, the equilibrium average orbital texture vanishes by parity, although persistent-like orbital angular momentum currents may still exist and imply chirality-dependent end magnetization in a finite helix. Under an applied longitudinal electric field, the system develops a finite orbital Edelstein response, whereas the projected longitudinal orbital-current conductivity vanishes in the linear regime by parity. When spin degrees of freedom are included, the orbital texture acts as a source of spin polarization through orbital-to-spin transduction. The resulting spin response is controlled by orbital overlap scales much larger than the bare relativistic spin--orbit scale, making it a stronger candidate for spin injection than the conventional spin Edelstein mechanism. These results identify chirality as the minimal microscopic ingredient for generating orbital angular momentum response in one-dimensional systems and support an orbital route to spin selectivity in chiral conductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Horizon Microstructure Thermodynamics in AdS Black Holes: Smarr-Consistent Excitation Enthalpy

In this work we formulate a horizon-microstructure description of four-dimensional AdS black holes in which a horizon of area $A$ is resolved into $\mathcal{N}=A/a_p$ microscopic sites and $N$ occupied horizon sites. The central result is that the combinatorics of this partially occupied horizon sector yields the entropy directly: in the finite-filling regime the leading term is proportional to the area, and the maximal-entropy filling reproduces the Bekenstein--Hawking law with $a_p=4\ln 2\ \ell_{p}^{2}$. Subleading corrections include a subtractive logarithmic term and an inverse-area expansion. We then show that this partially occupied regime admits a thermodynamic justification from an extended first law with chemical potential $μ$, a Smarr-consistent excitation enthalpy $δM(A,P,N)$, and an AdS control parameter $u=PS$. In this interpretation, the combinatorics provides the dominant horizon entropy, while the thermodynamic sector supplies a dressing that selects the equilibrium filling and assigns a finite excitation cost to departures from a reference partially occupied configuration.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Minimal Model for Chirally Induced Spin Selectivity: Chirality, Spin-orbit coupling, Decoherence and Tunneling

Here we review a universal model for chirally induced spin-selectivity (CISS) as a standalone effect occurring in chiral molecules. We tie together the results of forward scattering in the gas phase to the results for photoelectrons in chiral self-assembled monolayers and the more contemporary results in two terminal transport setups. We discuss the ingredients that are necessarily present in all experiments to date, which we identify as: i) chirality, be it point, helical or configurational, ii) the spin-orbit coupling as the spin active coupling of atomic origin, iii) decoherence as a time-reversal symmetry breaking mechanism that avoids reciprocity relations in the linear regime and finally iv) tunneling that accounts for the magnitude of the spin polarization effect. This proposal does not discard other mechanisms that can yield comparable spin effects related to interactions of the molecule to contacts or substrates that have been proposed but that are less universal or apply to particular situations. Finally, we discuss recent results suggesting CISS as a molecular phenomenon in the real of enantiomer selectivity, coherent electron transfer, and spin effects in chiroptical activity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

The advance of Mercury's perihelion

A very famous ``test'' of the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) is the advance of Mercury's perihelion (and of other planets too). To be more precise, this is not a prediction of General Relativity, since the anomaly was known in the XIXth century, but no consistent explanation had been found yet at the time GTR was elaborated. Einstein came up with a solution to the problem in 1914. In the case of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, the effect is more pronounced than for other planets, and observed from Earth; there is an advance of the perihelion of Mercury of about 5550~arc seconds per century (as/cy). Among these, about $5000$ are due to the equinox precession (the precise value is {$5025.645$}~as/cy) and about $500$ ({$531.54$}) to the influence of the external planets. The remaining, about $50$~as/cy ({$42.56$}), are not understood within Newtonian mechanics. Here, we revisit the problem in some detail for a presentation at the undergraduate level.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Minimal Model for Chirally Induced Spin Selectivity: Spin-orbit coupling, tunneling and decoherence

Chirally Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) is a transport phenomenon observed in both linear and non-linear regimes, where the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) acts as the key driver and electron tunneling serves as the dominant mechanism for charge transfer. Despite SOC's inherent time-reversal symmetry (TRS) preservation, conventional reciprocity relations limit spin polarization and the differential treatment of spin species. In experimental systems, an additional factor, spin-independent decoherence, disrupts TRS and reciprocity. We introduce decoherence using the Buttiker voltage probe within the scattering matrix framework. Our results reveal the importance of under-the-barrier decoherence as an order-of-magnitude polarization enhancement mechanism. Polarization arises by the disruption of spin precession around the spin-orbit magnetic field with a new spin component along the field direction. The alignment of polarization depends on interference effects produced by the voltage probe. We discuss the connection of our model to a more realistic decoherence mechanism in molecular systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Electron Spin Polarization as a Predictor of Chiroptical Activity in Helical Molecules

Chiral structures, breaking spatial inversion symmetry, exhibit non-zero chiroptical activity (COA) due to the interaction between their electric and magnetic responses under external electromagnetic fields, an effect that is otherwise absent in achiral systems. Non-magnetic chiral structures also exhibit Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS), where spin-polarization (SP) emerges without external magnetic influence. We have obtained a COA-SP connection for a model system of an electron constrained to a helix including spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and in the presence of an external electromagnetic field. Despite its simplicity, this model captures the relevant physics required to address the problem. In particular, our results reveal that the norm of the SP vector can be used as a predictor of COA. In addition to SOC and the breaking of space inversion, a non-vanishing SP requires the breaking of time-reversal symmetry (TRS), as demanded by Onsager's reciprocity. Beyond the relationship between SP and COA, we obtain the novel result that TRS breaking is also necessary to yield a non-vanishing contribution of the SOC to the COA.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

A Chirality-Based Quantum Leap

Chiral degrees of freedom occur in matter and in electromagnetic fields and constitute an area of research that is experiencing renewed interest driven by recent observations of the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect in chiral molecules and engineered nanomaterials. The CISS effect underpins the fact that charge transport through nanoscopic chiral structures favors a particular electronic spin orientation, resulting in large room-temperature spin polarizations. Observations of the CISS effect suggest opportunities for spin control and for the design and fabrication of room-temperature quantum devices from the bottom up, with atomic-scale precision. Any technology that relies on optimal charge transport, including quantum devices for logic, sensing, and storage, may benefit from chiral quantum properties. These properties can be theoretically and experimentally investigated from a quantum information perspective, which is presently lacking. There are uncharted implications for the quantum sciences once chiral couplings can be engineered to control the storage, transduction, and manipulation of quantum information. This forward-looking perspective provides a survey of the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of chiral-influenced quantum effects, and presents a vision for their future roles in enabling room-temperature quantum technologies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Radiation Modulated Spin coupling in DNA

The spin activity in macromolecules such as DNA and oligopeptides, in the context of the Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) has been proposed to be due to the atomic Spin-Orbit Coupling (SOC) and the associated chiral symmetry of the structures. This coupling, associated with carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms in biological molecules, albeit small (meV), can be enhanced by the geometry, and strong local polarization effects such as hydrogen bonding (HB). A novel way to manipulate the spin degree of freedom is by modifying the spectrum using a coupling to the appropriate electromagnetic radiation field. Here we use the Floquet formalism in order to show how the half filled band Hamiltonian for DNA, can be modulated by the radiation to produce a up to a tenfold increase of the effective SOC once the intrinsic coupling is present. On the other hand, the chiral model, once incorporating the orbital angular momentum of electron motion on the helix, opens a gap for different helicity states (helicity splitting) that chooses spin polarization according to transport direction and chirality, without breaking time reversal symmetry. The observed effects are feasible in physically reasonable parameter ranges for the radiation field amplitude and frequency.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Response to Comment on: Tunneling in DNA with Spin Orbit coupling

The comment by O. Entin-Wohlman, A. Aharony, and Y. Utsumi, on our paper S. Varela, I. Zambrano, B. Berche, V. Mujica, and E. Medina, Phys. Rev. B 101, 241410(R) (2020) makes a few points related to the validity of our model, especially in the light of the interpretation of Bardarson's theorem: "in the presence of time reversal symmetry and for half-integral spin the transmission eigenvalues of the two terminal scattering matrix come in (Kramers) degenerate pairs". The authors of the comment first propose an ansatz for the wave function in the spin active region and go on to show that the resulting transmission does not show spin dependence, reasoning that spin dependence would violate Bardarson's assertion. Here we clearly show that the ansatz presented assumes spin-momentum independence from the outset and thus just addresses the spinless particle problem. We then find the appropriate eigenfunction contemplating spin-momentum coupling and show that the resulting spectrum obeys Bardarson's theorem. Finally we show that the allowed wavevectors are the ones assumed in the original paper and thus the original conclusions follow. We recognize that the Hamiltonian in our paper written in local coordinates on a helix was deceptively simple and offer the expressions of how it should be written to more overtly convey the physics involved. The relation between spin polarization and torque becomes clear, as described in our paper. This response is a very important clarification in relation to the implications of Bardarson's theorem concerning the possibility of spin polarization in one dimensional systems in the linear regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Mechanically modulated spin orbit couplings in oligopeptides

Recently experiments have shown very significant spin activity in biological molecules such as DNA, proteins, oligopeptides and aminoacids. Such molecules have in common their chiral structure, time reversal symmetry and the absence of magnetic exchange interactions. The spin activity is then assumed to be due to either the pure Spin-orbit (SO) interaction or SO coupled to the presence of strong local sources of electric fields. Here we derive an analytical tight-binding Hamiltonian model for Oligopeptides that contemplates both intrinsic SO and Rashba interaction induced by hydrogen bond. We use a lowest order perturbation theory band folding scheme and derive the reciprocal space intrinsic and Rashba type Hamiltonian terms to evaluate the spin activity of the oligopeptide and its dependence of molecule uniaxial deformations. SO strengths in the tens of meV are found and explicit spin active deformation potentials. We find a rich interplay between responses to deformations both to enhance and diminish SO strength that allow for experimental testing of the orbital model. Qualitative consistency with recent experiments shows the role of hydrogen bonding in spin activity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Spin-orbit interaction and spin selectivity for tunneling electron transfer in DNA

Electron transfer (ET) in biological molecules such as peptides and proteins consists of electrons moving between well defined localized states (donors to acceptors) through a tunneling process. Here we present an analytical model for ET by tunneling in DNA, in the presence of Spin-Orbit (SO) interaction, to produce a strong spin asymmetry with the intrinsic atomic SO strength in meV range. We obtain a Hamiltonian consistent with charge transport through $π$ orbitals on the DNA bases and derive the behavior of ET as a function of the injection state momentum, the spin-orbit coupling and barrier length and strength. A highly consistent scenario arises where two concomitant mechanisms for spin selection arises; spin interference and differential spin amplitude decay. High spin filtering can take place at the cost of reduced amplitude transmission assuming realistic values for the spin-orbit coupling. The spin filtering scenario is completed by addressing the spin dependent torque under the barrier, with a consistent conserved definition for the spin current.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Proximity induced spin orbit effects in graphene on Au

We introduce a $p_{z}-d$ coupling model Hamiltonian for the $π$-graphene/Au bands that predicts a rather large intrinsic spin-orbit (SO) coupling as are being reported in recent experiments and DFT studies. Working within the analytical Slater-Koster tight-binding approach we were able to identify the overlapping orbitals of relevance in the enhancement of the SO coupling for both, the sublattice symmetric (BC), and the ATOP (AC) stacking configurations. Our model effective Hamiltonian reproduces quite well the experimental spectrum for the two registries, and in addition, its shows that the hollow site configuration (BC), in which the A/B sites remain symmetric, yields the larger increase of the SO coupling. We also explore the Au-diluted case keeping the BC configuration and showed that it renders the preservation of the SO-gap with a similar SO interaction enhancement as the undiluted case but with a smaller graphene-gold distance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Induced exchange and spin-orbit effects by proximity in graphene on Ni and Co

The induced-proximity effects of nearly commensurate lattice structure of a graphene layer on Ni(111) and Co(0001) substrates in the AC stacking configuration are addressed through an analytical tight-binding approach within the Slater-Koster method. A minimal Hamiltonian is constructed by considering the hybridizations of the magnetic $3d$-orbitals of Ni(Co) atoms with the $p_z$-orbitals of graphene, in addition to the atomic spin-orbit coupling and the magnetization of the Ni(Co) atoms. A low-energy effective Hamiltonian for graphene/Ni(Co) describing the perturbed $π$-bands in the vicinity of the Dirac points is derived which enable us to get further insight on the physical nature of the induced-effective couplings to the graphene layer. It is shown that a magneto-spin-orbit type effect may emerge through two competing mechanisms simultaneously present, namely the proximity induced exchange and Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Such effects results in giant exchange splittings and robust Rashba spin-orbit coupling transferred to the graphene layer in agreement with recent density functional theory calculations and experimental observations. We further analyze the physical conditions for the appearance of intact Dirac cones in the minority spin bands as observed by recent photoemission measurements with spin resolution.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Reduction of the bulk modulus with polydispersity in non-cohesive granular solids

We study the effect of grain polydispersity on the bulk modulus in non-cohesive two dimensional granular solids. Molecular dynamics simulations in two dimensions are used to describe polydisperse samples that reach a stationary limit after a number of hysteresis cycles. For stationary samples, we obtain that the packing with the highest polydispersity has the lowest bulk modulus. We compute the correlation between normal and tangential forces with grain size using the concept of {\it branch vector/contact length}. Classifying the contact lengths and forces by their size compared to the average length and average force respectively, we find that strong normal and tangential forces are carried by large contact lengths, generally composed of at least one large grain. This behavior is more dominant as polydispersity increases, making force networks more anisotropic and removing the support, from small grains, in the loading direction thus reducing the bulk modulus of the granular pack. Our results for two dimensions describe qualitatively the results of three dimensional experiments.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2017

DNA mechanical deformations and chiral spin selectivity

The strength of the spin-orbit interaction relevant to transport in a low dimensional structure depends critically on the relative geometrical arrangement of current carrying orbitals. Recent tight-binding orbital models for spin transport in DNA-like molecules, have surmised that the band spin-orbit coupling arises from the particular angular relations between orbitals of neighboring bases on the helical chain. Such arrangement could be probed by inducing deformations in the molecule in a conductive probe AFM type setup, as it was recently reported by Kiran, Cohen and Naaman\cite{Kiran}. Here we report deformation dependent spin selectivity when a double strand DNA model is compressed or stretched. We find that the equilibrium geometry is not optimal with respect to the SO coupling strength and thus spin selectivity can be tuned by deformations. The latter can be increased by stretching the helical structure taking into account its elastic properties through the Poisson ratio. The spin filtering gap is also found to be tunable with uniaxial deformations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Contact angle entropy and macroscopic friction in non-cohesive two dimensional granular packings

We study the relationship between the granular contact angle distribution and local particle friction on the macroscopic friction and bulk modulus in non-cohesive disk packings. Molecular dynamics in two dimensions are used to simulate uniaxial loading-unloading cycles imposed on the granular packings. While macroscopic Mohr-friction depends on the granular pack geometric details, it reaches a stationary limit after a finite number of loading-unloading cycles that render well-defined values for bulk modulus, grain coordination, porosity, and friction. For random packings and for all polydispersities analyzed, we found that as inter-particle friction increases, the bulk modulus for the limit cycle decreases linearly, while the mean coordination number is reduced and the porosity increased, also as approximately linear functions. On the other hand, the macroscopic Mohr-friction increases in a monotonous trend with inter-particle friction. The latter result is compared to a theoretical model which assumes the existence of sliding planes corresponding to definite Mohr-friction values. The simulation results for macroscopic friction are well described by the theoretical model that incorporates the local neighbour angle distribution that can be quantified through the contact angle entropy. As local friction is increased, the limit entropy of the neighbour angle distribution is reduced, thus introducing the geometric component to granular friction. Surprisingly, once the limit cycle is reached, the Mohr-friction seem to be insensitive to polydispersity as has been recently reported.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2017

Using torsion to manipulate spin currents

We address the problem of quantum particles moving on a manifold characterised by the presence of torsion along a preferential axis. In fact, such a torsion may be taylored by the presence of a single screw dislocation, whose Burgers vector measures the torsion amplitude. The problem, first treated in the relativistic limit describing fermions that couple minimally to torsion, is then analysed in the Pauli limit We show that torsion induces a geometric potential and also that it couples generically to the phase of the wave function, giving rise to the possibility of using torsion to manipulate spin currents in the case of spinor wave functions. These results emerge as an alternative strategy for using screw dislocations in the design of spintronic-based devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗