Cold denaturation induces inversion of dipole and spin transfer in chiral peptide monolayers.

Chirality-induced spin selectivity is a recently-discovered effect, which results in spin selectivity for electrons transmitted through chiral peptide monolayers. Here, we use this spin selectivity to probe the organization of self-assembled α-helix peptide monolayers and examine the relation between structural and spin transfer phenomena. We show that the α-helix structure of oligopeptides based on alanine and aminoisobutyric acid is transformed to a more linear one upon cooling. This process is similar to the known cold denaturation in peptides, but here the self-assembled monolayer plays the role of the solvent. The structural change results in a flip in the direction of the electrical dipole moment of the adsorbed molecules. The dipole flip is accompanied by a concomitant change in the spin that is preferred in electron transfer through the molecules, observed via a new solid-state hybrid organic-inorganic device that is based on the Hall effect, but operates with no external magnetic field or magnetic material.

Helicenes--A New Class of Organic Spin Filter.

Chiral helicene, a fully conjugated system without stereogenic carbon, can filter spins effectively at room temperature, a consequence of the chiral-induced spin-selectivity effect. The chirality dictates the spin of the electrons transferred through helicene, and magnetoresistance devices based on these molecules show antisymmetric magnetoresistance versus H plots.

Electric-field-driven alignment of chiral conductive polymer thin films.

We investigated the effect of an electric field on the alignment and structural properties of thin films of a chiral polybithiophene-based conductive polymer, functionalized with a protected l-cysteine amino acid. Thin films were obtained by exploiting both drop-casting and spin-coating procedures. The electric properties, the polarized Raman spectrum, the UV-vis spectrum, and the CD spectra were measured as a function of the electric field intensity applied during film formation. It was found that beyond the enhancement of the conductivity observed when the electric field aligns the polymer, the electric field significantly affects the chiral properties and the effect depends on the method of deposition.

A chiral-based magnetic memory device without a permanent magnet.

Several technologies are currently in use for computer memory devices. However, there is a need for a universal memory device that has high density, high speed and low power requirements. To this end, various types of magnetic-based technologies with a permanent magnet have been proposed. Recent charge-transfer studies indicate that chiral molecules act as an efficient spin filter. Here we utilize this effect to achieve a proof of concept for a new type of chiral-based magnetic-based Si-compatible universal memory device without a permanent magnet. More specifically, we use spin-selective charge transfer through a self-assembled monolayer of polyalanine to magnetize a Ni layer. This magnitude of magnetization corresponds to applying an external magnetic field of 0.4 T to the Ni layer. The readout is achieved using low currents. The presented technology has the potential to overcome the limitations of other magnetic-based memory technologies to allow fabricating inexpensive, high-density universal memory-on-chip devices.