We study the spin-orbit coupling induced by the splitting between TE and TM optical modes in a photonic honeycomb lattice. Using a tight-binding approach, we calculate analytically the band structure. Close to the Dirac point,we derive an effective Hamiltonian. We find that the local reduced symmetry (D3h) transforms the TE-TM effective magnetic field into an emergent field with a Dresselhaus symmetry. As a result, particles become massive, but no gap opens. The emergent field symmetry is revealed by the optical spin Hall effect.
@article{arxiv.1404.6395,
title = {Spin-orbit coupling and optical spin Hall effect in photonic graphene},
author = {A. V. Nalitov and G. Malpuech and H. Terças and D. Solnyshkov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.6395},
year = {2015}
}