The Effect of Duschinskii Rotations on Spin-Dependent Electron Transfer Dynamics

Abstract

We investigate spin-dependent electron transfer in the presence of a Duschinskii rotation. In particular, we propagate dynamics for a two-level model system for which spin-orbit coupling introduces an interstate coupling of the form $e^{iWx}$, which is both position(x)-dependent and complex-valued. We demonstrate that two-level systems coupled to Brownian oscillators with Duschinskii rotations (and thus entangled normal modes) can produce marked increases in transient spin polarization relative to two-level systems coupled to simple shifted harmonic oscillators. These conclusions should have significant relevance for modeling the effect of nuclear motion on chiral induced spin selectivity.