Broad line-width Te crystal

Phonon line width activates interband channels, offering a material platform for large interband thermal Edelstein response in complex crystals and nanostructures.

Hong, Sun · Wang, Tingting · Zhuo, Ju · Ma, Dengke · Zhou, Jun · Zhang, Lifa

Nano Letters 2026

Specifications

Activation criterion

{'zh': '(Γn + Γm)/2 ∼ |ωn - ωm|', 'en': '(Γn + Γm)/2 ∼ |ωn - ωm|'}

Advantages

Line width is a knob

Finite line widths cause spectral overlap between neighboring phonon branches, activating interband channels, so line width can serve as a design parameter.

Works in common crystals

The mechanism is verified in Te, LiNbO3, and Rb2Se3, indicating that interband contributions can be achieved without exotic materials.

Also works in nanostructures

A minimal nanoribbon model shows that subband crowding and finite line widths can also promote interband contributions in nanostructures.

Applications

• photon-phononics：Provides a tunable interband response mechanism for phonon angular momentum devices.
• nanoribbons：Exploits subband crowding and line width to activate interband contributions in nanoribbons.