Unconventional Interlayer Exchange Mechanism via Chiral Phonons in Synthetic Magnetic Oxide Heterostructures
June 15, 2023
Chiral phonons in artificial oxide superlattices mediate interlayer exchange interaction across a nonmagnetic insulator, leading to a spiral spin structure.
Scientific Achievement
The work revealed the existence of chiral phonon-mediated interlayer exchange interaction which leads to an unusual spiral spin structure in artificial oxide superlattices.
Significance and Impact
The discovery of this new interlayer exchange mechanism unveils the crucial roles of chiral phonons in magnetic materials, which could be applied to spintronics and phononics.
Research Details
- Polarized Neutron Reflectometry was employed to identify the intriguing spiral spin structure.
- Confocal Raman spectroscopy identified a phonon Zeeman effect suggesting the chiral symmetry breaking of phonons and their angular momentum coupling to spins.
“Unconventional Interlayer Exchange Mechanism via Chiral Phonons in Synthetic Magnetic Oxide Heterostructures”
Seung Gyo Jeong, Jiwoong Kim, Ambrose Seo, Sungkyun Park, Hu Young Jeong, Young-Min Kim, Valeria Lauter, Takeshi Egami, Jung Hoon Han, Woo Seok Choi,
Science Advances 8, eadm4005 (2022). DOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm4005
