Experiments with circularly polarised X-ray light prove the existance of chiral phonons (IMAGE)

Paul Scherrer Institute

Experiments with circularly polarised X-ray light prove the existance of chiral phonons

Caption

To prove the existence of chiral phonons, researchers used resonant inelastic X-rays scattering (RIXS). Circularly polarised light shines on quartz. The angular momentum of the photons is transferred to a crystal, causing a revolution in this case of anions (orange spheres with p orbitals) relative to their neighbouring cations (green spheres).

Credit

Paul Scherrer Institute / Hiroki Ueda and Mahir Dzambegovic

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