Electron transfer and spin-orbit coupling: Can nuclear motion lead to spin selective rates?

We investigate a spin-boson inspired model of electron transfer, where the diabatic coupling is given by a position-dependent phase, e(iWx). We consider both equilibrium and nonequilibrium initial conditions. We show that, for this model, all equilibrium results are completely invariant to the sign of W (to infinite order). However, the nonequilibrium results do depend on the sign of W, suggesting that photo-induced electron transfer dynamics with spin-orbit coupling can exhibit electronic spin polarization (at least for some time). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.