Shabala Natalia, Geilhufe R Matthias
Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Physics, 412 96 Göteborg, Sweden.
Phys Rev Lett. 2024 Dec 31;133(26):266702. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.266702.
The phonon inverse Faraday effect describes the emergence of a dc magnetization due to circularly polarized phonons. In this work we present a microscopic formalism for the phonon inverse Faraday effect. The formalism is based on time-dependent second order perturbation theory and electron phonon coupling. While our final equation is general and material independent, we provide estimates for the effective magnetic field expected for the ferroelectric soft mode in the oxide perovskite SrTiO_{3}. Our estimates are consistent with recent experiments showing a huge magnetization after a coherent excitation of circularly polarized phonons with THz laser light. Hence, the theoretical approach presented here is promising for shedding light into the microscopic mechanism of angular momentum transfer between ionic and electronic angular momentum, which is expected to play a central role in the phononic manipulation of magnetism.
