Chiral phononics

Dominik Juraschek, Eindhoven University of Technology

Chiral phononics is an emerging field that utilizes the angular momentum of circularly polarized lattice vibrations to manipulate the properties of quantum materials. When phonons are driven resonantly with an ultrashort circularly polarized terahertz pulse, light makes the ions in the material behave like electromagnetic coils, producing circular motions of the atoms around their equilibrium positions in the crystal. This motion induces real and effective magnetic fields that have been calculated and measured in a range up to the tesla scale, providing a new tool for the control of magnetic order. Here, I provide an introduction to the field and present recent theoretical predictions of novel phenomena arising from chiral phonon driving. These include the light-induced magnetization in antiferromagnets [1] and cavity-engineered phonon chirality [2]. Further, I will show that nonlinear phonon excitation can be utilized to make achiral materials chiral on demand [3].

[1] Kahana, Bustamante Lopez, Juraschek, Science Advances 10, eado0722 (2024)
[2] Yaniv, Juraschek, in preparation
[3] Romao, Juraschek, ACS Nano 18, 29550 (2024)

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