Chiral phonons
Journal article, 2025
A rapidly increasing body of work reporting phenomena associated with lattice vibrations carrying angular momentum has led to the emergence of the field of chiral phonons. Some of these properties, such as the phonon magnetic moment, also occur in achiral phonons that are circularly or elliptically polarized, while the presence of chirality has additional implications for the types of interaction allowed between the phonons and light, electrons and other quasiparticles. In this Perspective we introduce a framework for classifying phonons with angular momentum, and provide illustrations of the different types using examples from the recent literature. Specifically, we suggest the term ‘axial phonon’ to encompass all phonons that carry angular momentum, real or pseudo, and reserve the term ‘chiral phonon’ for those phonons that break improper rotational symmetry. We hope that this scheme provides clarification on the matter of phonon chirality and will serve as a guide for future research.
Author
D. M. Juraschek
Eindhoven University of Technology
Tel Aviv University
Richard Matthias Geilhufe
Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter and Materials Theory
Hanyu Zhu
Rice University
Martina Basini
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
Peter Baum
University of Konstanz
Andrey Baydin
Rice University
Swati Chaudhary
University of Tokyo
Michael Fechner
Max Planck Society
Benedetta Flebus
Boston College
Gael Grissonnanche
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
A. Kirilyuk
Radboud University
Mikhail Lemeshko
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Sebastian F. Maehrlein
Max Planck Society
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Technische Universität Dresden
Maxime Mignolet
University of Liège
European Theoret Spect Facil ETSF
National Fund for Scientific Research
Shuichi Murakami
Institute of Science Tokyo
Qian Niu
University of Science and Technology of China
Ulrich Nowak
University of Konstanz
Carl P. Romao
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
Habib Rostami
University of Bath
Takuya Satoh
Institute of Science Tokyo
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Nicola Spaldin
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
Hiroki Ueda
Paul Scherrer Institut
Lifa Zhang
Nanjing Normal University
Nature Physics
1745-2473 (ISSN) 17452481 (eISSN)
Vol. In PressTransient chiral-induced magnetic effects
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (2023.0087), 2024-07-01 -- 2029-06-30.
Interaction of chiral phonons and spin
Swedish Research Council (VR) (2022-03350), 2023-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9