Spin-Dependent Transport in One-Dimensional Mercury- and Silver-Mediated DNA Nanowires
Abstract
Metallo-DNA nanowires serve as a versatile, programmable scaffold for molecular-scale electronics. In this work, we demonstrate that periodic heavy-metal coordination fundamentally reshapes the electronic landscape of DNA, generating dispersive, metal-centered conduction bands rather than isolated localized states. Driven by enhanced inter-layer coupling, where second nearest-neighbor hopping plays a crucial role: the conduction bandwidth can approach 1 eV, more than double that of canonical DNA. These broad bands suggest enhanced robustness of transport against structural fluctuations. As a result of relativistic effects, in these quasi-one-dimensional materials, spin-orbit (SO) coupling enhances band dispersion and governs spin-dependent transport. We predict that although ligand hybridization reduces atomic SO splitting, the effective SO splitting in these nanowires is comparable to the next-nearest-neighbor hopping strength, which results in considerable spin mixing. We find that Hg2+-coordinated nanowire exhibit pronounced spin-flip conductance comparable to spin-conserving conductance across the LUMO manifold. This efficient spin conversion remains robust over extended molecular lengths and is accompanied by a set of highly delocalized unoccupied states with oscillating nodal structures, readily accessible under low-bias transport measurements. In contrast, the Ag+-coordinated nanowires exhibit weak spin-flip scattering that is more than an order of magnitude smaller than spin-preserving transport. This duality establishes the choice of coordination metal as a decisive parameter to govern metal-metal interaction, electron delocalization, and spin-dependent transport. Overall, our findings demonstrate how relativistic effects and quantum confinement intersect in these bio-templated, quasi-one-dimensional molecular conductors.
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BibTeX
@misc{de2026spindependent,
title = {{Spin-Dependent Transport in One-Dimensional Mercury- and Silver-Mediated DNA Nanowires}},
author = {Arpan De and William Livernois and Simon Vecchioni and Yoel P. Ohayon and M. P. Anantram},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.31508},
eprint = {2610.31508},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31508},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spin-Dependent Transport in One-Dimensional Mercury- and Silver-Mediated DNA Nanowires
AU - Arpan De
AU - William Livernois
AU - Simon Vecchioni
AU - Yoel P. Ohayon
AU - M. P. Anantram
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.31508
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31508
AB - Metallo-DNA nanowires serve as a versatile, programmable scaffold for molecular-scale electronics. In this work, we demonstrate that periodic heavy-metal coordination fundamentally reshapes the electronic landscape of DNA, generating dispersive, metal-centered conduction bands rather than isolated localized states. Driven by enhanced inter-layer coupling, where second nearest-neighbor hopping plays a crucial role: the conduction bandwidth can approach 1 eV, more than double that of canonical DNA. These broad bands suggest enhanced robustness of transport against structural fluctuations. As a result of relativistic effects, in these quasi-one-dimensional materials, spin-orbit (SO) coupling enhances band dispersion and governs spin-dependent transport. We predict that although ligand hybridization reduces atomic SO splitting, the effective SO splitting in these nanowires is comparable to the next-nearest-neighbor hopping strength, which results in considerable spin mixing. We find that Hg2+-coordinated nanowire exhibit pronounced spin-flip conductance comparable to spin-conserving conductance across the LUMO manifold. This efficient spin conversion remains robust over extended molecular lengths and is accompanied by a set of highly delocalized unoccupied states with oscillating nodal structures, readily accessible under low-bias transport measurements. In contrast, the Ag+-coordinated nanowires exhibit weak spin-flip scattering that is more than an order of magnitude smaller than spin-preserving transport. This duality establishes the choice of coordination metal as a decisive parameter to govern metal-metal interaction, electron delocalization, and spin-dependent transport. Overall, our findings demonstrate how relativistic effects and quantum confinement intersect in these bio-templated, quasi-one-dimensional molecular conductors.
ER -