English

Theory of spin magnetization driven by chiral phonons

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-04-11 v2

Abstract

We construct a general theory of spin magnetization driven by chiral phonons under an adiabatic process, in which atoms rotate around their equilibrium positions with a low phonon frequency. Here the spin magnetization originates from the modulated electronic states with spin-orbital coupling by atomic rotations. Under the adiabatic approximation, the time-dependent spin magnetization can be calculated by a Berry-phase method. In this paper, we focus on its time average, which is evaluated by assuming that the phonon displacement is small. As a result, the time average of the spin magnetization is concisely formulated in the form of the Berry curvature defined in the phonon-displacement space as an intrinsic property of atomic rotations. Our formula for spin magnetization reflects the chiral nature of phonons, and is convenient for abab initioinitio calculations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.10766,
  title  = {Theory of spin magnetization driven by chiral phonons},
  author = {Dapeng Yao and Shuichi Murakami},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.10766},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

9 pages, 4 figures