Intrinsic vibrational angular momentum from non-adiabatic effects in non-collinear magnetic molecules

Abstract

We show that in non-collinear magnetic molecules, non-adiabatic (dynamical) effects due to the electron-vibron coupling are time-reversal symmetry breaking interactions for the vibrational field. As in these systems the electronic wavefunction can not be chosen as real, a nonzero geometric vector potential (Berry connection) arises. As a result, an intrinsic nonzero vibrational angular momentum occurs even for non-degenerate modes and in the absence of external probes. The vibronic modes can then be seen as elementary quantum particles carrying a sizeable angular momentum. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the magnitude of this topological effect by performing non-adiabatic first principles calculations on platinum clusters and by showing that these molecules host sizeable intrinsic phonon angular momenta comparable to the orbital electronic ones in itinerant ferromagnets.

5 pages, 3 figures, to appear on Physical Review Letters

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• Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO
• Pseudospins and topological effects of phonons in a Kekule lattice
• Density functional perturbation theory for lattice dynamics with fully relativistic ultrasoft pseudopotentials: the magnetic case

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