Topological states and quantized current in helical molecules

Abstract

We report a theoretical study of electron transport along helical molecules under an external electric field, which is perpendicular to the helix axis of the molecule. Our results reveal that the topological states could appear in single-helical molecule and double-stranded DNA in the presence of the perpendicular electric field. And these topological states guarantee adiabatic charge pumping across the helical molecules by rotating the electric field in the transverse plane and the pumped current at zero bias voltage is quantized. In addition, the quantized current constitutes multiple plateaus by scanning the Fermi energy as well as the bias voltage, and hold for various model parameters, since they are topologically protected against perturbations. These results could motivate further experimental and theoretical studies in the electron transport through helical molecules, and pave the way to detect topological states and quantized current in the biological systems.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions
• Observation of chiral edge states with neutral fermions in synthetic Hall ribbons
• Visualizing edge states with an atomic Bose gas in the quantum Hall regime
• Organic Topological Insulators in Organometallic Lattices
• Chiral symmetry and bulk--boundary correspondence in periodically driven one-dimensional systems
• Continuum model for chiral induced spin selectivity in helical molecules
• DNA double helices for single molecule electronics
• Enhanced spin-polarized transport through DNA double helix by gate voltage
• Chiral control of electron transmission through molecules
• Point Mutations Effects on Charge Transport Properties of the Tumor-Suppressor Gene p53
• Effect of gate voltage on spin transport along $\alpha$-helical protein

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Spin-selective transmission through a single-stranded magnetic helix
• Topological phase transitions of Thouless charge pumping realized in helical organic molecules with long-range hoppings
• Quantized charge-pumping in higher-order topological insulators
• Antiferromagnetic helix as an efficient spin polarizer: Interplay between electric field and higher ordered hopping
• Local equilibria and state transfer of charged classical particles on a helix in an electric field
• Topologically nontrivial and trivial zero modes in chiral molecules
• Charge transport in a multi-terminal DNA tetrahedron: Interplay among contact position, disorder, and base-pair mismatch
• Localization to delocalization transition in a double stranded helical geometry: Effects of conformation, transverse electric field and dynamics
• Critical analysis of multiple reentrant localization in an antiferromagnetic helix with transverse electric field: Hopping dimerization-free scenario
• Thermoelectric phenomena in an antiferromagnetic helix: Role of electric field
• Topological states in chiral electronic chains