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D-Wave Phonon Angular Momentum Texture in Altermagnets by Magnon-Phonon Hybridization

Hannah Bendin1,2, Alexander Mook3,4, Ingrid Mertig1, and Robin R. Neumann3,4,1,*

  • *Contact author: rneumann@uni-mainz.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 056701 – Published 27 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/r43h-ch8r

Abstract

In altermagnets, the magnon bands are anisotropically spin split in reciprocal space without relativistic or dipolar spin-spin interactions. In this Letter, we theoretically study magnons and phonons coupled by spin-lattice interaction in a two-dimensional square-lattice d-wave altermagnet. We show that phonon-chirality-selective magnon-phonon hybridization can be caused by interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction leading to the emergence of hybrid quasiparticles that possess finite phonon angular momentum. These hybrid quasiparticles are called magnon polarons and consist of spin-polarized magnons and chiral phonons. Their phonon angular momentum texture follows the d-wave character of the magnon spin texture, opening up the possibility of phononic counterparts to the electronic response effects in altermagnets, such as a phonon angular momentum splitter effect, i.e., the generation of a transverse phonon angular momentum current induced by a temperature gradient—the bosonic analog of the spin-splitter effect.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 056701– Published 27 July, 2026
  • Received 11 November 2025
  • Revised 7 April 2026
  • Accepted 22 June 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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