Nuclear Angular Momentum Generation in Thermally Driven Chiral Systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermal gradients can induce angular momentum in chiral molecular systems lacking inversion symmetry, revealing a general non-equilibrium phenomenon with potential applications in spintronics and energy transport.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical and numerical analysis of angular momentum generation in thermally driven chiral molecules, demonstrating its universality and significance.

Findings

Significant vibrational angular momentum can be induced by thermal and mechanical driving.

Angular momentum generation is common in driven chiral structures.

Magnitude of induced angular momentum is comparable to optically driven chiral phonons.

Abstract

The appearance of angular momentum in the nuclear motion of molecular systems lacking inversion symmetry under imposed thermal gradients presents a novel mechanism with potential implications for spintronics, magnetic response, and energy transport in such systems. Here we explore this phenomenon, using theoretical analysis and numerical simulations to study angular momentum generation in several driven chiral molecular models. We demonstrate that significant vibrational angular momentum can be induced under both mechanical and thermal driving, with magnitude comparable to that induced in optically driven chiral phonons. We find that generation of angular momentum is a common and general phenomenon in driven chiral structures, highlighting the role of symmetry-breaking in the (non-equilibrium) internal atomic motion of such systems.