phonons

Findings published in Nature settle the dispute: phonons can be chiral. This fundamental concept, discovered using circular X-ray light, sees phonons twisting like a corkscrew through quartz. Throughout nature, at all scales, you can find…

Atoms in a crystal form a regular lattice, in which they can move over small distances from their equilibrium positions. Such phonon excitations are represented by quantum states. A superposition of phonon states defines a so-called phonon…

Truly chiral phonons -- i.e., rotating and propagating atomic motions seen in a crystal lattice -- have never been observed in a bulk 3D material. However, now, Tokyo Tech researchers have identified these in cinnabar. Chirality is the…

Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed…

A hundred years of physics tells us that collective atomic vibrations, called phonons, can behave like particles or waves. When they hit an interface between two materials, they can bounce off like a tennis ball. If the materials are thin…