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arXiv · 1109.1597

Chirality of Matter Shows Up via Spin Excitations

Sandor Bordacs·Istvan Kezsmarki·David Szaller·Laszlo Demko·Noriaki Kida·Hiroshi Murakawa·Yoshinori Onose·Ryo Shimano·Toomas Room·Urmas Nagel·Shin Miyahara·Nobuo Furukawa·Yoshinori Tokura
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Abstract

Right- and left-handed circularly polarized light interact differently with electronic charges in chiral materials. This asymmetry generates the natural circular dichroism and gyrotropy, also known as the optical activity. Here we demonstrate that optical activity is not a privilege of the electronic charge excitations but it can also emerge for the spin excitations in magnetic matter. The square-lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$ offers an ideal arena to test this idea, since it can be transformed to a chiral form by application of external magnetic fields. As a direct proof of the field-induced chiral state, we observed large optical activity when the light is in resonance with spin excitations at sub-terahertz frequencies. In addition, we found that the magnetochiral effect, the absorption difference for the light beams propagating parallel and anti-parallel to the applied magnetic field, has an exceptionally large amplitude close to 100%. All these features are ascribed to the magnetoelectric nature of spin excitations as they interact both with the electric and magnetic components of light.

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Sandor Bordacs, Istvan Kezsmarki, David Szaller, Laszlo Demko, Noriaki Kida, Hiroshi Murakawa, Yoshinori Onose, Ryo Shimano, Toomas Room, Urmas Nagel, Shin Miyahara, Nobuo Furukawa, Yoshinori Tokura. 2011-09-07. Chirality of Matter Shows Up via Spin Excitations. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2387

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