2017/10/25 by Igor Proskurin, R. L. Stamps, Robert L. Stamps +4 · 2 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Antiferromagnetism #Asymmetry #Chiral symmetry #Chirality (physics) #Condensed matter physics #Explicit symmetry breaking #Ferromagnetism #Magnetic properties of thin films #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Optics #Physics #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin density wave #Spin wave #Spontaneous symmetry breaking #Symmetry (geometry) #Symmetry breaking #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.177202
published as Phys. Rev. Lett., 119, 177202 (2017) · 6 pages (plus Supplemental Material, 6 pages), 1 figure, published version
openalex publication_date 2017/10/25 · arxiv created 2017/10/30 · arxiv updated 2017/10/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
As first demonstrated by Tang and Cohen in chiral optics, the asymmetry in the rate of electromagnetic energy absorption between left and right enantiomers is determined by an optical chirality density. Here, we demonstrate that this effect can exist in magnetic spin systems. By constructing a formal analogy with electrodynamics, we show that in antiferromagnets with broken chiral symmetry, the asymmetry in local spin-wave energy absorption is proportional to a spin-wave chirality density, which is a direct counterpart of optical zilch. We propose that injection of a pure spin current into an antiferromagnet may serve as a chiral symmetry breaking mechanism, since its effect in the spin-wave approximation can be expressed in terms of additional Lifshitz invariants. We use linear response theory to show that the spin current induces a nonequilibrium spin-wave chirality density.