title: Light-controlled spin filtering in bacteriorhodopsin.
abstract: The role of the electron spin in chemistry and biology has received much attention recently owing to to the possible electromagnetic field effects on living organisms and the prospect of using molecules in the emerging field of spintronics. Recently the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect was observed by electron transmission through organic molecules. In the present study, we demonstrated the ability to control the spin filtering of electrons by light transmitted through purple membranes containing bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and its D96N mutant. The spin-dependent electrochemical cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometric measurements were performed with the membranes deposited on nickel substrates. High spin-dependent electron transmission through the membranes was observed; however, after the samples were illuminated by 532 nm light, the spin filtering in the D96N mutant was dramatically reduced whereas the light did not have any effect on the wild-type bR. Beyond demonstrating spin-dependent electron transmission, this work also provides an interesting insight into the relationship between the structure of proteins and spin filtering by conducting electrons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics and ‡Department of Organic Chemistry, Weizmann Institute , Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Hila
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Einati
authors.forename: Debabrata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: Noga
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Mordechai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sheves
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naaman
mesh_terms: D001436:Bacteriorhodopsins / Q000737:chemistry*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D008027:Light
chemical_list: D001436:Bacteriorhodopsins
keywords: Spin filtering; bacteriorhodopsin; electrochemistry; light-induced effects