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Phonon chirality as an additive control of CISS: a symmetry-protected law

Shi-Qi Zhang, Vipul Upadhyay, Jiayue Han, Amikam Levy, Wenjie Dou

physics.chem-pharXiv:2609.21198

Abstract

Chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) is usually associated with molecular handedness. The possible contribution of chiral phonons is less established. We study a helical tight-binding model in which local phonon angular momentum modulates spin-dependent nearest-neighbor hopping. Fewest-switches surface hopping calculations give the transmitted spin polarization SP=aC+bPH. Here C is the molecular chirality and PH is the phonon chirality. A mirror symmetry reverses C, PH, and SP simultaneously. This symmetry excludes both a chirality-independent offset and a C·PH term. The phonon contribution can therefore enhance, cancel, or reverse the molecular CISS signal.

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