Electron Spin-Polarization Dependent Damage to Chiral Amino Acid l‑Histidine

The damage of approximately monolayer films of l-histidine by low-energy spin-polarized electrons (SPE) ejected from a magnetized cobalt substrate has been probed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Average damage cross sections for N-containing motifs of l-histidine are 25–30 and 2–5 Mb f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of physical chemistry letters 2020-12, Vol.11 (23), p.10182-10187
Main Authors: Schaible, M. J, Rosenberg, R. A, Kundu, S, Orlando, T. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amino acids
chirality
INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Physical Insights into Materials and Molecular Properties
radiation damage
spin-polarized electrons
XPS
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Summary:The damage of approximately monolayer films of l-histidine by low-energy spin-polarized electrons (SPE) ejected from a magnetized cobalt substrate has been probed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Average damage cross sections for N-containing motifs of l-histidine are 25–30 and 2–5 Mb for zwitterions and neutral molecules, respectively. The magnetization direction of the substrate, which controls the ejected SPE helicity, was reversed in situ, and statistically significant differences in the damage cross sections of 10–30% were measured between positive and negative electron helicities. This is the first measurement of spin dichroism (SD) in an amino acid. The differential cross sections suggest that inelastic scattering of SPE with chiral molecules could contribute to the persistence of one enantiomer vs the other under certain irradiation conditions, particularly for the zwitterionic species.
ISSN:1948-7185
1948-7185
DOI:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02855