Homepage of the 2nd Institute of Physics, RWTH Aachen - News

Current events

Talk today at 11:30 by Bernd Beschoten!

News 24.04.2025
New short film about the physics programme at RWTH Aachen

Site Content:

← Back to the full news list.

News 14.04.2021

New publication: Electrical Control over Phonon Polarization in Strained Graphene

../../images/news/2021_NL_Sonntag.png

Nano Lett. 21, 2898 (2021)
We explore the tunability of the phonon polarization in suspended uniaxially strained graphene by magneto-phonon resonances. The uniaxial strain lifts the degeneracy of the LO and TO phonons, yielding two cross-linearly polarized phonon modes and a splitting of the Raman G peak. We utilize the strong electron–phonon coupling in graphene and the off-resonant coupling to a magneto-phonon resonance to induce a gate-tunable circular phonon dichroism. This, together with the strain-induced splitting of the G peak, allows us to controllably tune the two linearly polarized G mode phonons into circular phonon modes. We are able to achieve a circular phonon polarization of up to 40% purely by electrostatic fields and can reverse its sign by tuning from electron to hole doping. This provides unprecedented electrostatic control over the angular momentum of phonons, which paves the way toward phononic applications.

read more