Ron Naaman is credited in the source digest as the discoverer of Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) (CISS), together with co-workers. The landmark study is Ray, Ananthavel, Waldeck and Naaman, "Asymmetric scattering of polarized electrons by organized organic films of chiral molecules," Science 283 (5403): 814–816, February 1999 (doi:10.1126/science.283.5403.814).
He is also a co-author of the 2022 theory review "Theory of Chirality Induced Spin Selectivity: Progress and Challenges" (Evers, Aharony, Bar-Gill, Entin-Wohlman, Hedegård, Hod, Jelinek, Kamieniarz, Lemeshko, Michaeli, Mujica, Naaman, Paltiel, Refaely-Abramson, Tal), Advanced Materials 34 (13) 2106629, arXiv:2108.09998, doi:10.1002/adma.202106629. That review is summarised in Theory of CISS: Progress and Challenges (Evers, Kronik et al., 2021).
The digest associates him with the Weizmann Institute of Science, which hosts the CISS Effect community site and its publications page.
Challenges to the spin-transport interpretation
Tirion and van Wees (University of Groningen, 2024) propose an electrostatic alternative to the spin-transport interpretation of CISS magnetoresistance, arguing that the large two-terminal MR and apparent Onsager reciprocity violation can be explained by a chirality-dependent contact potential at the molecule–ferromagnet interface without invoking spin filtering. The Groningen group's earlier spin-transmission model (Yang, van der Wal and van Wees, 2019) is itself used to demonstrate that spin-dependent transport alone cannot produce magnetoresistance in linear response.
The spinterface model and Naaman-group data
Sarkar, Sharoni, Monti and Dubi's 2025 critical perspective on the spinterface mechanism (The Spinterface Mechanism for CISS: A Critical Perspective) uses data from the Naaman group — specifically DNA oligomer transport measurements — as a primary test case for quantitative fitting. The spinterface model reproduces those current–voltage curves for 26, 40 and 50 base-pair oligomers with a single set of interface parameters, varying only the molecular hopping parameters across lengths.
Source notes & attribution
- https://rexresearch.com/CISSMetamaterial/CISSMetamaterial.html