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 verifcation 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 specifc 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.
%0 Journal Article
%1 noauthororeditor
%A Ueda, Hiroki
%A García-Fernández, Mirian
%A Agrestini, Stefano
%A Romao, Carl P.
%A van den Brink, Jeroen
%A Spaldin, Nicola A.
%A Zhou, Ke-Jin
%A Staub, Urs
%D 2023
%J Nature
%K a b
%P 946–950
%R 10.1038/s41586-023-06016-5
%T Chiral phonons in quartz probed by X-rays
%U https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06016-5
%V 618
%X 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 verifcation 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 specifc 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.
@article{noauthororeditor,
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 verifcation 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 specifc 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.},
added-at = {2023-06-21T12:45:08.000+0200},
author = {Ueda, Hiroki and García-Fernández, Mirian and Agrestini, Stefano and Romao, Carl P. and van den Brink, Jeroen and Spaldin, Nicola A. and Zhou, Ke-Jin and Staub, Urs},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/247274edf502e4d32a5f096ebb9474632/ctqmat},
day = 07,
description = {Chiral phonons in quartz probed by X-rays},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-06016-5},
interhash = {163dcd0d58036958353cc4cb60b7c14e},
intrahash = {47274edf502e4d32a5f096ebb9474632},
issn = {1476-4687},
journal = {Nature},
keywords = {a b},
month = {06},
pages = {946–950},
timestamp = {2023-10-13T10:37:19.000+0200},
title = {Chiral phonons in quartz probed by X-rays},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06016-5},
volume = 618,
year = 2023
}