Journal article
Photo-induced chirality in a nonchiral crystal
- Abstract:
-
Chirality, a pervasive form of symmetry, is intimately connected to the physical properties of solids, as well as the chemical and biological activity of molecular systems. However, inducing chirality in a nonchiral material is challenging because this requires that all mirrors and all roto-inversions be simultaneously broken. Here, we show that chirality of either handedness can be induced in the nonchiral piezoelectric material boron phosphate (BPO4) by irradiation with terahertz pulses. Resonant excitation of either one of two orthogonal, degenerate vibrational modes determines the sign of the induced chiral order parameter. The optical activity of the photo-induced phases is comparable to the static value of prototypical chiral α-quartz. Our findings offer new prospects for the control of out-of-equilibrium quantum phenomena in complex materials.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 4.0MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1126/science.adr4713
Authors
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/05j0w0e76
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Journal:
- Science More from this journal
- Volume:
- 387
- Issue:
- 6732
- Pages:
- 431-436
- Publication date:
- 2025-01-23
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-11-22
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1095-9203
- ISSN:
-
0036-8075
- Pmid:
-
39847620
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
-
2080685
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2080685
- Deposit date:
-
2025-03-06
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Zeng et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2025 the authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original US government works.
- Notes:
-
The author accepted manuscript (AAM) of this paper has been made available under the University of Oxford's Open Access Publications Policy, and a CC BY public copyright licence has been applied.
This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from American Association for the Advancement of Science at https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adr4713
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record