Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism

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Hauptverfasser: Koller, Eduard, Swarup, Swetlana, Knolle, Johannes, Perkins, Natalia B.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Koller, Eduard
Swarup, Swetlana
Knolle, Johannes
Perkins, Natalia B.
author_facet Koller, Eduard
Swarup, Swetlana
Knolle, Johannes
Perkins, Natalia B.
contents Recent Raman experiments on the Kitaev material $α$-RuCl$_3$ have reported a finite Raman circular dichroism (RCD), revealing chiral phonon behaviour not expected from lattice symmetry alone. To explain this observation, we develop a diagrammatic framework for the spin-phonon coupled Kitaev model. We demonstrate that bare phonons contribute no RCD, but coupling to the chiral spin excitation continuum under an applied magnetic field renormalizes the phonon propagator, mixing real polarization eigenvectors into complex superpositions with finite angular momentum. This interaction-induced modification generates a nonzero RCD accompanied by characteristic Fano line shapes in the Raman response, reflecting interference between discrete phonons and the continuum. The resulting signal grows with magnetic field strength, consistent with experiment, and directly tracks the field-induced chirality of the spin sector. More broadly, our results establish RCD as a powerful probe of interaction-induced chiral phonons in correlated quantum materials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_14902
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism
Koller, Eduard
Swarup, Swetlana
Knolle, Johannes
Perkins, Natalia B.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Recent Raman experiments on the Kitaev material $α$-RuCl$_3$ have reported a finite Raman circular dichroism (RCD), revealing chiral phonon behaviour not expected from lattice symmetry alone. To explain this observation, we develop a diagrammatic framework for the spin-phonon coupled Kitaev model. We demonstrate that bare phonons contribute no RCD, but coupling to the chiral spin excitation continuum under an applied magnetic field renormalizes the phonon propagator, mixing real polarization eigenvectors into complex superpositions with finite angular momentum. This interaction-induced modification generates a nonzero RCD accompanied by characteristic Fano line shapes in the Raman response, reflecting interference between discrete phonons and the continuum. The resulting signal grows with magnetic field strength, consistent with experiment, and directly tracks the field-induced chirality of the spin sector. More broadly, our results establish RCD as a powerful probe of interaction-induced chiral phonons in correlated quantum materials.
title Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14902