For the first time ever, the authors showed that chiral phonons can transfer orbital angular momentum to electrons directly to electrons in a non-magnetic material.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need a magnet. We don\u2019t need a battery. We don\u2019t need to use voltage. We just need a material with chiral phonons,\u201d said Valy Vardeny,<\/a> distinguished professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy<\/a> at the University of Utah and co-author of the study. \u201cBefore, it was unimaginable. Now, we\u2019ve invented a new field, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n The paper was published on Jan. 21, 2026, in the journal Nature Physics<\/a>.<\/p>\n The race to crack chiral phonons<\/p>\n The study\u2019s innovation was using the natural symmetry and vibrations of atoms to control the orbital momentum of electrons. Atoms in a solid are tightly packed together in lattice-like structures, whose shape depends on the material. In some materials, like metals, the atoms are arranged in a cube pattern, stacking together symmetrically so that its mirror image superimposes perfectly.<\/p>\n In chiral materials, such as quartz, the atoms are arranged in a helical pattern, like the threads of a screw. The atoms stack together with a built-in twist with either a \u201cleft-\u201d or \u201cright-\u201d handedness that can\u2019t superimpose onto each other, a symmetry called chirality. Human hands are a classic example of chiral symmetry\u2014hold them out with the palms facing up, then put one of top of the other. That\u2019s chiral!<\/p>\n Now, onto chiral phonons. Individual atoms vibrate in place while staying in a fixed position. In symmetrical materials like metals, the atoms wiggle side-to-side. In chiral materials, the twisted lattice structure forces the atoms to naturally wobble in a screw-like pattern with right- or left-handedness.<\/p>\n Phonons are the collective vibrations that travel through a solid, like a ripple moving through its atoms. Chiral materials have chiral phonons. Imagine you\u2019re in the pit at a rock concert when the ballad hits. Someone starts swaying, hands in the air, forcing their neighbor to sway, and so on until the wave pattern ripples through the crowd.<\/p>\n The fact that the atoms vibrate in a circular, chiral path means that the atoms themselves naturally have an angular momentum. The study is the first to show that the chiral phonons\u2019 angular momentum transferred directly to electrons\u2019 orbital angular momentum.<\/p>\n Aligning the atoms Because electrons have a negative charge, magnetic fields are an essential ingredient to influence an electron\u2019s orbital angular momentum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe generation of orbital currents traditionally necessitates the injection of charge current into specific transition metals, and many of these elements are now classified as critical materials,\u201d said Dali Sun<\/a>, physicist at North Carolina State University and co-author of the study. \u201cThere are other ways to generate orbital angular momentum, but this method allows for the use of cheaper, more abundant materials.\u201d<\/p>\n Quartz, for example, is lightweight, inexpensive and its chiral phonons carry their own internal magnetic field. For the first time, University of Utah physicists directly measured the magnetism in quartz, using equipment at the National High Magnetic Field Lab<\/a> in Florida. The scientists shot lasers through the system and analyzed the properties of the light that was reflected. The changes in light, color, wavelength, etc., revealed that quartz chiral phonons carry a substantial magnetic field.<\/p>\n Under everyday conditions, chiral phonons have a random mix of right- and left-handed atoms that all have various energy levels. The researchers used\u00a0\u03b1-quartz, a crystal with a chiral atomic structure, to test their theory. By applying a magnetic field to the quartz, the researchers forced the material to align the right- and left-handed phonons.<\/p>\n The authors showed that getting a critical mass of aligned chiral phonons was enough to transfer the effect to the electrons\u2014without needing an external magnet. This created a flow of electron angular momentum that the authors coined the \u201corbital Seebeck effect,\u201d named after a well-known process, that influences electron spin called the \u201cspin Seebeck effect.\u201d To directly measure the orbital Seebeck effect, the scientists put layers of metals (tungsten and titanium) on top of the \u03b1-quartz, which conferred the hidden \u201corbital flow\u201d into a measurable electrical signal.<\/p>\n The method will work on other chiral materials, such as tellurium, selenium and hybrid organic\/inorganic perovskites. It\u2019s more efficient because it uses less material while holding the orbital angular momentum far longer than other systems have been shown to do.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though the material itself isn\u2019t magnetic, the existence of chiral phonons gives us these magnetic levers to pull on,\u201d said Rikard Bodin, doctoral candidate at the U and co-author of the paper. \u201cWhen we talk about discovering things, like the orbital Seebeck effect\u2014I can\u2019t tell you that your TV is going to run on it, but it\u2019s creating more levers that we can pull on to do new things. Now that it\u2019s here, someone else can push it forward and before you know it, it\u2019s ubiquitous. That\u2019s how technology is.\u201d<\/p>\n ****<\/p>\n The research was supported by the United States Department of Energy (DE-SC0020992, DE-FG02-07ER46451); the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-23-1-0311, LRIR 23RXCOR003, 23RT0542), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (DMR-2143642, DMR-2509513, OAC-2311202, CNS-2320292, CBET-1943813); the Israel Science Foundation (ISF: 2974\/23); and the Penn State Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for Nanoscale Science from NSF (DMR-2011839)<\/p>\n Other authors include Binod Pandey from the University of Utah; Yoji Nabei, Cong Yang, Hana Jones, Ziqi Wang, Andrew H. Comstock, Benjamin Ewing, John Bingen, Rui Sun, Jun Liu and Dali Sun from North Carolina State University; Hong Sun and Jun Zhou from Nanjing Normal University; Thuc Mai and Rahul Rao from the Air Force Research Laboratory; Tian Wang and Xiaosong Li from the University of Washington; Yuzan Xiong and Wei Zhang of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dmitry Smirnov of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory; Axel Hoffmann from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Ming Hu from the University of South Carolina; and Binghai Yan from Pennsylvania State University.<\/p>\n Find the study, titled \u201cOrbital Seebeck effect induced by chiral phonons<\/a>,\u201d in Nature Physics. Jan. 21, 2026. DOI: 10.1038\/s41567-025-03134-x<\/p>\n \n MEDIA & PR CONTACTS\n <\/p>\n
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<\/a>A quartz crystal subjected to a temperature gradient, leading to the generation of orbital angular momentum in the surrounding electron environment. Credit: North Carolina State University<\/p>\n