Note on the helicity decomposition of spin and orbital optical currents
Optics
2015-05-20 v1 Quantum Physics
Abstract
In the helicity representation, the Poynting vector (current) for a monochromatic optical field, when calculated using either the electric or the magnetic field, separates into right-handed and left-handed contributions, with no cross-helicity contributions. Cross-helicity terms do appear in the orbital and spin contributions to the current. But when the electric and magnetic formulas are averaged ('electric-magnetic democracy'), these terms cancel, restoring the separation into right-handed and left-handed currents for orbital and spin separately.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1505.04992,
title = {Note on the helicity decomposition of spin and orbital optical currents},
author = {Andrea Aiello and M. V. Berry},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.04992},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, no figures