SPICE Workshop on Chiral Phonons, July 29th - 31st 2025
Benedetta Flebus
In recent years, a rapidly increasing number of studies has reported novel physical phenomena arising from lattice vibrations that carry angular momentum, leading to the emergence of the field of 'chiral phonons.' In magnetic systems, the coupling between lattice vibrations and magnetic degrees of freedom has been identified as a key mechanism behind phonon chirality and the ensuing thermal Hall effects. However, recent observations of giant thermal Hall signals in a range of compounds suggest that additional mechanisms, such as impurity scattering and coupling to out-of-phase ionic motion, play a significant role. In this talk, I will present an overview of these sources of phonon chirality and discuss their implications for the interpretation of recent experimental findings.