Chiral phonons in quartz probed by X-rays

Hiroki Ueda (), Mirian García-Fernández, Stefano Agrestini, Carl P. Romao, Jeroen Brink, Nicola A. Spaldin, Ke-Jin Zhou and Urs Staub ()
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Hiroki Ueda: Paul Scherrer Institute
Mirian García-Fernández: Diamond Light Source
Stefano Agrestini: Diamond Light Source
Carl P. Romao: ETH Zurich
Jeroen Brink: IFW Dresden
Nicola A. Spaldin: ETH Zurich
Ke-Jin Zhou: Diamond Light Source
Urs Staub: Paul Scherrer Institute

Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7967, 946-950

Abstract: Abstract The concept of chirality is of great relevance in nature, from chiral molecules such as sugar to parity transformations in particle physics. In condensed matter physics, recent studies have demonstrated chiral fermions and their relevance in emergent phenomena closely related to topology1–3. The experimental verification of chiral phonons (bosons) remains challenging, however, despite their expected strong impact on fundamental physical properties4–6. Here we show experimental proof of chiral phonons using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering with circularly polarized X-rays. Using the prototypical chiral material quartz, we demonstrate that circularly polarized X-rays, which are intrinsically chiral, couple to chiral phonons at specific positions in reciprocal space, allowing us to determine the chiral dispersion of the lattice modes. Our experimental proof of chiral phonons demonstrates a new degree of freedom in condensed matter that is both of fundamental importance and opens the door to exploration of new emergent phenomena based on chiral bosons.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06016-5

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