https://phys.org/news/2018-05-emerging-magnetism-vibrating-non-magnetic-layers.html

This breakthrough has been led by Professor Noejung Park in the School of Natural Science in collaboration with reseachers from the Theory Department of the MPSD (Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter) and CFEL in Hamburg. In the study, the research team demonstrated that circularly polarized phonons produce a valley-dependent dynamic spin state as a result of strong spin-phonon coupling, which can be developed as a vehicle for quantum computation or spintronics applications. The findings of this study have been published in Nature Communications on February 12, 2018.

In everyday life, we experience and utilize many properties of materials: from electrical and thermal conductors/insulators to micro-/nano-electronics, telecommunications, computing, sensoring, energy conversion and tailored materials with specific mechanical, optical and magnetics properties, to name a few. Microscopically, these materials consist of electrons and nuclei, and their properties can mostly be attributed to the quantum mechanical arrangement of the electrons. Even though the atomic nucleus can also be specified by its constituent particles, such as protons and neutrons, the inner structure of the nucleus, in most cases, plays no role in determining the properties of the material. Instead, nuclei are clearly manifested through their vibration. The shape and magnitude of the vibrations, which is specifically called a phonon, are another dominating factor determining the material's properties besides the charge and spin of the electrons.