{"id":229802,"date":"2026-01-25T23:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/chiral-phonons-create-orbital-current-via-their-own-magnetism"},"modified":"2026-01-25T23:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:49:30","slug":"chiral-phonons-create-orbital-current-via-their-own-magnetism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/chiral-phonons-create-orbital-current-via-their-own-magnetism","title":{"rendered":"Chiral phonons create orbital current via their own magnetism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/chiral-phonons-create-orbital-current-via-their-own-magnetism.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a new study, an international group of researchers has found that chiral phonons can create orbital current without needing magnetic elements\u2014in part because chiral phonons have their own magnetic moments. Additionally, this effect can be achieved in common crystal materials. The work has potential for the development of less expensive, energy-efficient orbitronic devices for use in a wide array of electronics.<\/p>\n<p>All electronic devices are based upon the charge of an electron, and electrons have three intrinsic properties: spin, charge and orbital angular momentum. While researchers have long explored the use of spin as a more efficient way to create current, the field of <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-09-orbital-angular-momentum-monopoles-discovery.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">orbitronics <\/a>\u2014based upon using an electron\u2019s orbital angular momentum, rather than its spin, to create a current flow\u2014is still relatively new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTraditionally it has been technically challenging to generate orbital current,\u201d says Dali Sun, co-corresponding author on the study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41567-025-03134-x\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Physics<\/i>. Sun is a professor of physics and member of the Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) at North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a new study, an international group of researchers has found that chiral phonons can create orbital current without needing magnetic elements\u2014in part because chiral phonons have their own magnetic moments. Additionally, this effect can be achieved in common crystal materials. The work has potential for the development of less expensive, energy-efficient orbitronic devices for [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}