Physics Colloquium: The electron’s spin and molecular chirality - How are they related and how may they affect life?

Abstract:

An interesting question is why nature preserved chirality in Biology so persistently, with no exception, despite the energy cost of keeping molecules chiral. It will be shown that, at least partially, this is due to the special effect that takes place in chiral systems, termed Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS).  Spin based properties, applications, and devices are commonly related to magnetic effects and to magnetic materials. However, we found that chiral organic molecules can act as spin filters for photoelectrons transmission,  in electron transfer,  and in electron transport.  

The new effect has interesting implications for the production of new types of spintronics devices,  but perhaps much more importantly it allows efficient electron transfer in bio-system, controls the path of reactions in biology, and may allow for an efficient bio-recognition.

The effect and its implications will be discussed.

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Event Organizer: Prof. Yoram Dagan