terahertz pulses in non-chiral crystals

Terahertz Pulses Create chirality in Non-Chiral Crystals

Understanding Chirality in Crystals

Chirality describes objects that cannot be perfectly aligned with their images, regardless of rotations or translations—similar to how left and right human hands differ. In chiral crystals, the atomic arrangement imparts a unique "handedness," affecting properties such as optical behavior and electrical conductivity.

Research Focus: Antiferro-Chiral Crystals

Characteristics of Antiferro-Chiral Crystals

A research collaboration between Hamburg and Oxford has studied antiferro-chiral crystals, a type of non-chiral structure analogous to antiferromagnetic materials, where magnetic moments anti-align in a staggered pattern, resulting in no net magnetization.

Composition of Antiferro-Chiral Crystals

These crystals contain equal proportions of left-and right-handed substructures within a unit cell, making them overall non-chiral.

Breakthrough: Inducing Chirality with Terahertz Light

Key Researchers and Their Approach

The research group, headed by Andrea Cavalleri from the Max-Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, utilized terahertz light to disrupt the balance of the non-chiral material boron phosphate (BPO₄), thereby inducing finite chirality on an ultrafast timescale.

Published Findings

This research has been published in Science by the team.

Nonlinear Phononics: A Game-Changing Mechanism

Explanation of the Methodology

"As part of our approach, we utilize a concept known as  nonlinear phononics," say Zhiyang Zeng, lead author. "By stimulating a particular terahertz frequency vibrational mode, which displaces the crystal lattice along the axes of other modes, we were able to create a chiral state that lasts for several picoseconds," he further explains.

Selective Induction of Chirality

"Significantly by rotating the polarization of her terahertz light by 90 degrees, we were able to selectively induce either a left-or right-handed chiral structure," adds co-author Michael Forst.

Potential Applications and Future Prospects

"This discovery paves the way for dynamic control of matter at the atomic scale," says Cavalleri, group leader at the MPSD.

Advancing Technological Innovations

"We are eager to explore the potential applications of this technology and its capacity to create novel functionalities. The ability to induce chirality in non-chiral materials opens up possibilities for ultrafast memory devices and more advanced optoelectronic platforms."

Source

Unlock the future of material science with groundbreaking research on terahertz light inducing chirality in non-chiral crystals. This revolutionary discovery paves the way for advanced technologies, including ultrafast memory devices and next-generation optoelectronics.

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