Chiral phononics: Controlling materials with a twist

Chiral phononics is an emerging field that, analogously to spintronics and orbitronics, utilizes the angular momentum of circularly polarized lattice vibrations to manipulate the properties of quantum materials. This has lead to intriguing discoveries of novel physical phenomena, including the generation of atomistic tesla-scale magnetic fields that promise unprecedented control of magnetic order. In this talk, I will provide an introduction to the field and then present our latest predictions of physical mechanisms arising from phonon chirality and angular momentum. In particular, I will demonstrate a phonon polariton Hall effect, in which optical phonons exhibit a transverse current in an applied magnetic field, and a phonon “spin” Hall effect, in which a transverse phonon angular momentum current is generated.