Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism
Source abstract
Abstract
Recent Raman experiments on the Kitaev material α -RuCl 3 have reported a finite Raman circular dichroism (RCD), revealing chiral phonon behavior not expected from lattice symmetry alone. To explain this observation, we develop a diagrammatic framework for the spin–phonon-coupled Kitaev model. We demonstrate that bare phonons contribute no RCD, but coupling to the chiral spin excitation continuum under an applied magnetic field renormalizes the phonon propagator, mixing real polarization eigenvectors into complex superpositions with finite angular momentum. This interaction-induced modification generates a nonzero RCD accompanied by characteristic Fano line shapes in the Raman response, reflecting interference between discrete phonons and the continuum. The resulting signal grows with magnetic field strength, consistent with experiment, and directly tracks the field-induced chirality of the spin sector. More broadly, our results establish RCD as a powerful probe of interaction-induced chiral phonons in correlated quantum materials.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Molecular spectroscopy and chirality · Quantum optics and atomic interactions · Advanced NMR Techniques and Applications
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References (56)
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