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Chirality of matter shows up via spin excitations

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 734–738 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

An object is considered chiral if its mirror image cannot be brought to coincide with itself by any sequence of simple rotations and translations1. Chirality on a microscopic scale—in molecules2,3, clusters4, crystals5 and metamaterials6,7—can be detected by differences in the optical response of a substance to right- and left-handed circularly polarized light2,3. Such ‘optical activity’ is generally considered to be a consequence of the specific distribution of electronic charge within chiral materials. Here, we demonstrate that a similar response can also arise as a result of spin excitations in a magnetic material. Besides this spin-mediated optical activity (SOA), we observe notable differences in the response of Ba2CoGe2O7—a square-lattice antiferromagnet that undergoes a magnetic-field driven transition to a chiral form—to terahertz radiation travelling parallel or antiparallel to an applied magnetic field. At certain frequencies the strength of this magneto-chiral effect8,9,10 is almost complete, with the difference between parallel and antiparallel absorption of the material approaching 100%. We attribute these phenomena to the magnetoelectric 11,12 nature of spin excitations as they interact with the electric and magnetic components of light.

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Figure 1: Chiroptical spectroscopy: an efficient probe of chirality both via charge and spin excitations.
Figure 2: Main aspects of magnetically induced chirality.
Figure 3: Absorption (α), polarization rotation (θ) and ellipticity (η) spectra of the spin-wave modes for light propagation along the [001] axis as measured by time-domain terahertz spectroscopy and calculated theoretically.
Figure 4: Magneto-chiral effect in the field-induced chiral state.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Arima and K. Penc for discussions. This work was supported by KAKENHI, MEXT of Japan, by Funding Program for World-Leading Innovation R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST program) on ‘Quantum Science on Strong Correlation’, by Hungarian Research Funds OTKA PD75615, Bolyai 00256/08/11, TA’MOP-4.2.2.B-10/1–2010-0009 and by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research under Grant SF0690029s09, and Estonian Science Foundation under Grants ETF8170 and ETF8703.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Condensed Matter Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1111 Budapest, Hungary

    S. Bordács, I. Kézsmárki, D. Szaller & L. Demkó

  2. Multiferroics Project, ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japan c/o The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

    S. Bordács, I. Kézsmárki, L. Demkó, N. Kida, H. Murakawa, Y. Onose, R. Shimano, S. Miyahara, N. Furukawa & Y. Tokura

  3. Department of Advanced Materials Science, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Chiba 277-8561, Japan

    N. Kida

  4. Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

    Y. Onose & Y. Tokura

  5. Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

    R. Shimano

  6. National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn 12618, Estonia

    T. Rõõm & U. Nagel

  7. Department of Physics and Mathematics, Aoyama Gakuin University, 5-10-1 Fuchinobe, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5258, Japan

    N. Furukawa

  8. Cross-correlated Materials Group (CMRG) and Correlated Electron Research Group (CERG), RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako 351-0198, Japan

    Y. Tokura

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Contributions

S.B., I.K., T.R., U.N., D.S. and L.D. performed the measurements and analysed the data; H.M. and Y.O. contributed to the sample preparation; N.K., R.S., T.R. and U.N. developed the experimental set-up; S.M. and N.F. developed the theory; S.B. and I.K. wrote the manuscript; and Y.T. and I.K. planned the project.

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Correspondence to I. Kézsmárki.

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Bordács, S., Kézsmárki, I., Szaller, D. et al. Chirality of matter shows up via spin excitations. Nature Phys 8, 734–738 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2387

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