---
OA_type: closed access
_id: '20432'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: A rapidly increasing body of work reporting phenomena associated with lattice
    vibrations carrying angular momentum has led to the emergence of the field of
    chiral phonons. Some of these properties, such as the phonon magnetic moment,
    also occur in achiral phonons that are circularly or elliptically polarized, while
    the presence of chirality has additional implications for the types of interaction
    allowed between the phonons and light, electrons and other quasiparticles. In
    this Perspective we introduce a framework for classifying phonons with angular
    momentum, and provide illustrations of the different types using examples from
    the recent literature. Specifically, we suggest the term ‘axial phonon’ to encompass
    all phonons that carry angular momentum, real or pseudo, and reserve the term
    ‘chiral phonon’ for those phonons that break improper rotational symmetry. We
    hope that this scheme provides clarification on the matter of phonon chirality
    and will serve as a guide for future research.
acknowledgement: We thank A. V. Balatsky, E. Bousquet, A. Disa, S. Kamba, L. Klebl,
  R. Merlin, A. Srivastava, A. Stroppa, M. Udina, P. Wong and D. Xiao for valuable
  discussions. M.B. acknowledges support from SNSF Ambizione project number PZ00P2_216089.
  P.B. and U.N. acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant
  number 541503763). B.F. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation
  under grant number NSF DMR-2144086. G.G. acknowledges support from STeP2 number
  ANR-22-EXES-0013, QuantExt number ANR-23-CE30-0001-01, Audace CEA number ANR-24-RRII-0004
  and the École Polytechnique foundation. A.I.K. acknowledges the Nederlandse Organisatie
  voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO-I) for their financial contribution, including
  the support of the HFML-FELIX Laboratory. D.M.J. acknowledges support from Tel Aviv
  University and ERC Starting Grant CHIRALPHONONICS grant number 101166037. S.F.M.
  acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant number 469405347).
  C.P.R. and N.A.S. were supported by ETH Zurich and by the European Union and Horizon
  2020, grant agreement numbers 810451 and 101030352. R.M.G. acknowledges support
  from the Swedish Research Council (VR starting grant number 2022-03350), the Olle
  Engkvist Foundation (grant number 229-0443), the Royal Physiographic Society in
  Lund (Horisont), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant number 2023.0087)
  and Chalmers University of Technology via the Department of Physics and the Areas
  of Advance Nano and Materials Science. Q.N. is supported by the National Natural
  Science Foundation of China (grant number 12234017) and the National Key Research
  and Development Program of China (grant number 2023YFA1406300). H.R. acknowledges
  funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant number
  UKRI122) and Royal Society (grant number IES\R2\242309). T.S. acknowledges support
  from MEXT X-NICS (grant number JPJ011438), NINS OML Project (grant number OML012301)
  and JST CREST (grant number JPMJCR24R5). H.Z. acknowledges support from the Welch
  Foundation (grant number C-2128) and the National Science Foundation (grant number
  DMR-2240106). We acknowledge support from the Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique
  et Moléculaire (CECAM) in connection to organizing the workshop "Chiral Phonons
  in Quantum Materials", held in 2023, where the idea for this paper emerged.
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Dominik M.
  full_name: Juraschek, Dominik M.
  last_name: Juraschek
- first_name: R. Matthias
  full_name: Geilhufe, R. Matthias
  last_name: Geilhufe
- first_name: Hanyu
  full_name: Zhu, Hanyu
  last_name: Zhu
- first_name: Martina
  full_name: Basini, Martina
  last_name: Basini
- first_name: Peter
  full_name: Baum, Peter
  last_name: Baum
- first_name: Andrey
  full_name: Baydin, Andrey
  last_name: Baydin
- first_name: Swati
  full_name: Chaudhary, Swati
  last_name: Chaudhary
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Fechner, Michael
  last_name: Fechner
- first_name: Benedetta
  full_name: Flebus, Benedetta
  last_name: Flebus
- first_name: Gael
  full_name: Grissonnanche, Gael
  last_name: Grissonnanche
- first_name: Andrei I.
  full_name: Kirilyuk, Andrei I.
  last_name: Kirilyuk
- first_name: Mikhail
  full_name: Lemeshko, Mikhail
  id: 37CB05FA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Lemeshko
  orcid: 0000-0002-6990-7802
- first_name: Sebastian F.
  full_name: Maehrlein, Sebastian F.
  last_name: Maehrlein
- first_name: Maxime
  full_name: Mignolet, Maxime
  last_name: Mignolet
- first_name: Shuichi
  full_name: Murakami, Shuichi
  last_name: Murakami
- first_name: Qian
  full_name: Niu, Qian
  last_name: Niu
- first_name: Ulrich
  full_name: Nowak, Ulrich
  last_name: Nowak
- first_name: Carl P.
  full_name: Romao, Carl P.
  last_name: Romao
- first_name: Habib
  full_name: Rostami, Habib
  last_name: Rostami
- first_name: Takuya
  full_name: Satoh, Takuya
  last_name: Satoh
- first_name: Nicola A.
  full_name: Spaldin, Nicola A.
  last_name: Spaldin
- first_name: Hiroki
  full_name: Ueda, Hiroki
  last_name: Ueda
- first_name: Lifa
  full_name: Zhang, Lifa
  last_name: Zhang
citation:
  ama: Juraschek DM, Geilhufe RM, Zhu H, et al. Chiral phonons. <i>Nature Physics</i>.
    2025;21:1532-1540. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9">10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9</a>
  apa: Juraschek, D. M., Geilhufe, R. M., Zhu, H., Basini, M., Baum, P., Baydin, A.,
    … Zhang, L. (2025). Chiral phonons. <i>Nature Physics</i>. Springer Nature. <a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9</a>
  chicago: Juraschek, Dominik M., R. Matthias Geilhufe, Hanyu Zhu, Martina Basini,
    Peter Baum, Andrey Baydin, Swati Chaudhary, et al. “Chiral Phonons.” <i>Nature
    Physics</i>. Springer Nature, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9</a>.
  ieee: D. M. Juraschek <i>et al.</i>, “Chiral phonons,” <i>Nature Physics</i>, vol.
    21. Springer Nature, pp. 1532–1540, 2025.
  ista: Juraschek DM, Geilhufe RM, Zhu H, Basini M, Baum P, Baydin A, Chaudhary S,
    Fechner M, Flebus B, Grissonnanche G, Kirilyuk AI, Lemeshko M, Maehrlein SF, Mignolet
    M, Murakami S, Niu Q, Nowak U, Romao CP, Rostami H, Satoh T, Spaldin NA, Ueda
    H, Zhang L. 2025. Chiral phonons. Nature Physics. 21, 1532–1540.
  mla: Juraschek, Dominik M., et al. “Chiral Phonons.” <i>Nature Physics</i>, vol.
    21, Springer Nature, 2025, pp. 1532–40, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9">10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9</a>.
  short: D.M. Juraschek, R.M. Geilhufe, H. Zhu, M. Basini, P. Baum, A. Baydin, S.
    Chaudhary, M. Fechner, B. Flebus, G. Grissonnanche, A.I. Kirilyuk, M. Lemeshko,
    S.F. Maehrlein, M. Mignolet, S. Murakami, Q. Niu, U. Nowak, C.P. Romao, H. Rostami,
    T. Satoh, N.A. Spaldin, H. Ueda, L. Zhang, Nature Physics 21 (2025) 1532–1540.
date_created: 2025-10-05T22:01:37Z
date_published: 2025-10-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-01-05T13:25:59Z
day: '01'
department:
- _id: MiLe
doi: 10.1038/s41567-025-03001-9
external_id:
  isi:
  - '001575765100001'
intvolume: '        21'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '10'
oa_version: None
page: 1532-1540
publication: Nature Physics
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1745-2481
  issn:
  - 1745-2473
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Chiral phonons
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 21
year: '2025'
...