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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

High Resolution Phonon-assisted Quasi-resonance Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Published on: June 28, 2016
Chiral Phonon Diode Effect in Chiral Crystals
Hao Chen1,2, Weikang Wu2,3, Jiaojiao Zhu3
1NNU-SULI Thermal Energy Research Center and Center for Quantum Transport and Thermal Energy Science (CQTES), School of Physics and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
Abstract:
The diode effect means that carriers can only flow in one direction but not the other. While diode effects for electron charge, spin, or photon have been widely discussed, it remains a question whether a chiral phonon diode can be realized, which utilizes the chiral degree of freedom of lattice vibrations. In this work, we reveal an intrinsic connection between the chiralities of a crystal structure and its phonon excitations, which naturally leads to the chiral phonon diode effect in chiral crystals. At a certain frequency, phonons with a definite chirality can propagate only in one direction but not the opposite. We demonstrate the idea in concrete materials including bulk Te and α-quartz (SiO2). Our work discovers the fundamental physics of chirality coupling between different levels of a system, and the predicted effect will provide a new route to control phonon transport and design information devices.
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