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Chirality-induced orbital Edelstein effect in an analytically solvable model

Börge Göbel*, Lennart Schimpf, and Ingrid Mertig

  • *Contact author: boerge.goebel@physik.uni-halle.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033180 – Published 21 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vpjm-ntbh

Abstract

Chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS), a phenomenon wherein chiral structures selectively determine the spin polarization of electron currents flowing through the material, has garnered significant attention due to its potential applications in areas such as spintronics, enantioseparation, and catalysis. The underlying physical effect is the Edelstein effect that converts charge to angular momentum. Besides a spin contribution, there exists a contribution based on the orbital angular momentum but the precise mechanism for its generation remains yet to be understood. Here, we introduce the minimal model for explaining the phenomenon based on the orbital Edelstein effect. We consider nonlocal intersite contributions to the current-induced orbital angular momentum and reveal the underlying mechanism by analytically calculating the Edelstein susceptibilities in a tight-binding and Boltzmann approach. While the orbital angular momentum is directly generated by the chirality of the crystal, the spin contribution of each spin-split band pair relies on spin-orbit coupling. Using tellurium as an example, we show that the orbital contribution surpasses the spin contribution by orders of magnitude.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033180– Published 21 August, 2025
  • Received 7 February 2025
  • Accepted 29 July 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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