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Spin–orbit coupling in a chiral medium is generally assumed to be a necessary ingredient for the observation of the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. However, some recent studies have suggested that CISS may manifest even when the chiral medium has zero spin–orbit coupling. In such systems, CISS may arise due to an orbital polarization effect, which generates an electromagnetochiral anisotropy in two-terminal conductance. Here, we examine these concepts using a chirally functionalized carbon nanotube network as the chiral medium. A transverse measurement geometry is used, which nullifies any electromagnetochiral contribution but still exhibits the tell-tale signs of the CISS effect. This suggests that CISS may not be explained solely by electromagnetochiral effects. The role of nanotube spin–orbit coupling on the observed pure CISS signal is studied by systematically varying nanotube diameter. We find that the magnitude of the CISS signal scales proportionately with the spin–orbit coupling strength of the nanotubes. We also find that nanotube diameter dictates the supramolecular chirality of the medium, which in turn determines the sign of the CISS signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helical functionalization of carbon nanotubes using DNA strands can polarize carrier spins through chirality induced spin selectivity (or CISS) effect. Detection of this effect using transport experiments unravels an underlying magnetoresistance effect, origin of which is not well understood. In the present study, we investigate this effect, a fundamental understanding of which is crucial for the potential use of this system in spintronic devices. The conduction mechanism has been found to be in the strongly localized regime due to DNA functionalization, with the observed magnetoresistance originating from the interference effects between the forward and backward hopping paths. CISS-induced spin polarization has been estimated to increase the carrier localization length by an order of magnitude in the low temperature range and it affects the magnetoresistance effect in a non-trivial way that is not observed in conventional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]