Coupled Ferroelectricity and Phonon Chirality

TL;DR

This study demonstrates reversible electrical control of phonon chirality in a ferroelectric material, enabling manipulation of spin and angular momentum transport for potential spintronic applications.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of coupling between ferroelectricity and phonon chirality, allowing electrical switching of crystal chirality and phonon angular momentum.

Findings

Reversible control of phonon chirality via electric field.

Phonon chirality vanishes in paraelectric phase.

Density functional theory supports experimental results.

Abstract

The ability to control chirality and chiral phonons offers a route to manipulate the direction of spin and angular-momentum transport. In materials with rigid structural chirality, such as quartz, phonon chirality is fixed by the handedness and cannot be switched. By contrast, ferroelectric materials host a spontaneous polarization that can be reversibly switched by an external electric field. When chirality is coupled to this ferroelectric polarization, it enables electrical switching of crystal chirality and the associated phonon angular momentum, which is compatible with solid-state spintronic architectures, enabling control over chirality-dependent quantum states.1 Here, we report the experimental demonstration of the coupling between ferroelectricity and phonon chirality in the molecular ferroelectric triglycine sulfate. By electrically switching the crystal chirality, we achieve reversible and device-compatible control of phonon chirality, as revealed by in situ time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. The Kerr rotation reverses with electric-field switching, while phonon chirality vanishes in the paraelectric phase and is tunable in the racemic ferroelectric state. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations and circularly polarized Raman spectroscopy further corroborate the opposite circular phonon motions. These results establish an electrically addressable coupling pathway linking ferroelectricity, structural chirality, chiral phonons, and spin, opening a route toward chiral-phonon-enabled spin and phonon control technologies based on ferroelectric materials.