Quantum Formulation of the Spinterface Model
Abstract
We present a fully quantum formulation of the spinterface model for the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, implemented within the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism. The model consists of a gold atom hosting a localised magnetic moment, coupled to a chiral molecular chain with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and contacted by two non-magnetic leads. The magnetic moment is determined self-consistently from the non-equilibrium electronic distribution, and the spin-resolved transmission is computed from the mean-field Hamiltonian. We show that the interfacial magnetic moment and the chiral Rashba term cooperate to produce large current polarisations that reproduce the key experimental signatures of CISS: high polarisation, a threshold emergence at four total sites followed by interference-modulated growth with chain length, thermal suppression, and sign reversal upon chirality inversion. The central new result of this work is a clean separation of the CISS effect into an even (achiral) and an odd (chiral) contribution to the spin current, ISz(ϕ) = ISzeven(ϕ) + ISzodd(ϕ). We demonstrate that ISzodd vanishes exactly at fixed mz for chains of fewer than four sites and becomes non-zero for chains of four or more sites, with the smallest junction exhibiting a non-zero odd part being the four-site geometry (one gold atom plus three molecular sites). The odd part arises from reciprocity breaking in a device that is simultaneously chiral, magnetically asymmetric (moment on the gold end only), and long enough to support two or more Rashba-active bonds. This provides a direct, parameter-free test of whether an observed spin signal is genuinely chiral or arises from an achiral spin-valve mechanism.
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BibTeX
@misc{alwan2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum Formulation of the Spinterface Model}},
author = {Seif Alwan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.28406},
eprint = {2610.28406},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.28406},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum Formulation of the Spinterface Model
AU - Seif Alwan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.28406
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.28406
AB - We present a fully quantum formulation of the spinterface model for the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, implemented within the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism. The model consists of a gold atom hosting a localised magnetic moment, coupled to a chiral molecular chain with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and contacted by two non-magnetic leads. The magnetic moment is determined self-consistently from the non-equilibrium electronic distribution, and the spin-resolved transmission is computed from the mean-field Hamiltonian. We show that the interfacial magnetic moment and the chiral Rashba term cooperate to produce large current polarisations that reproduce the key experimental signatures of CISS: high polarisation, a threshold emergence at four total sites followed by interference-modulated growth with chain length, thermal suppression, and sign reversal upon chirality inversion. The central new result of this work is a clean separation of the CISS effect into an even (achiral) and an odd (chiral) contribution to the spin current, I_S_z(ϕ) = I_S_z^even(ϕ) + I_S_z^odd(ϕ). We demonstrate that I_S_z^odd vanishes exactly at fixed m_z for chains of fewer than four sites and becomes non-zero for chains of four or more sites, with the smallest junction exhibiting a non-zero odd part being the four-site geometry (one gold atom plus three molecular sites). The odd part arises from reciprocity breaking in a device that is simultaneously chiral, magnetically asymmetric (moment on the gold end only), and long enough to support two or more Rashba-active bonds. This provides a direct, parameter-free test of whether an observed spin signal is genuinely chiral or arises from an achiral spin-valve mechanism.
ER -