Chiral spintronics: molecular chirality’s effect on chiral magnetic structures
- Date: Jun 25, 2025
- Speaker: Theo Balland
Spintronics is a field of research that explores the physics of the electron’s spin to develop new electronic systems using spin as an additional degree of freedom. A recent development is the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, which shows that electrons traveling through chiral molecules can become spin-polarized depending on the molecule's handedness.[1] When deposited on magnetic thin films, chiral molecules can interact with the ferromagnet's magnetic moments without any applied electric current.[2] The CISS effect has raised significant interest due to the high spin polarization that can be achieved using chiral organic molecules or light-element chiral materials.[2] In our research, we investigate the interaction between CISS-exhibiting chiral molecules and magnetic skyrmions, which are chiral magnetic textures observed in ferromagnetic/heavy metal multilayers and exhibit particle-like behavior.[3] This study explores how a self-assembled monolayer of chiral polypeptides affects the stability and dynamics of skyrmions in an adjacent magnetic thin film. Using magneto-optic Kerr effect microscopy, we show that chiral polypeptides affect the magnetic properties that govern the stability regime of skyrmions.[5] We show that skyrmion diffusion [6] can be enhanced or suppressed by adsorbed chiral polypeptides and that this tuning depends on the skyrmion core magnetization direction.[5]References [1] R, Naaman et al., Nat. Rev. Chem. 2019, 3, 205-260 [2] B. Bloom et al., Chem. Rev. 2024, 124, 1950-1991 [3] K. Everschor-Sitte et al., J. Appl. Phys. 2018, 124, 240901 [4] Y. Kapon et al., J. Chem. Phys. 2023, 159, 064701 [5] Y. Kapon et al. Nano Lett. 2025, 25, 306-312 [6] J. Zazvorka et al., Nature Nanotech. 2019, 14, 658-661