Related papers: Spin-induced angular momentum switching
We examine the momentum, spin, and orbital angular momentum of structured monochromatic optical fields in dispersive inhomogeneous isotropic media. There are two bifurcations in this general problem: the Abraham-Minkowski dilemma and the…
We demonstrate the spin to orbital angular momentum transfer in the nonlinear mixing of structured light beams. A vector vortex is coupled to a circularly polarized Gaussian beam in noncollinear second harmonic generation under type-II…
Transverse spin angular momentum is an inherent feature of evanescent waves which may have applications in nanoscale optomechanics, spintronics, and quantum information technology due to the robust spin-directional coupling. Here we analyze…
The interaction between a quantum particle's spin angular momentum and its orbital angular momentum is ubiquitous in nature. In optics, the spin-orbit optical phenomenon is closely related with the light-matter interaction and has been of…
Recent developments in the understanding of optical angular momentum have resulted in many demonstrations of unusual optical phenomena, such as optical beams with orbital angular momentum and transverse spinning light. Here we detail novel…
It is well known that spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of photons, is directly related to their circular polarization. Naturally, for totally unpolarized light, polarization is undefined and the spin vanishes. However, for…
Hybrid quantum systems exhibiting coupled optical, spin, and mechanical degrees of freedom can serve as a platform for sensing, or as a bus to mediate interactions between qubits with disparate energy scales. These systems are also creating…
Spin and angular momenta of light are important degrees of freedom in nanophotonics which control light propagation, optical forces and information encoding. Typically, optical angular momentum is generated using q-plates or spatial light…
In light beams with circular or elliptic polarization, the transverse energy flow consists of the "spin" and "orbital" parts. Both of them can induce the orbital motion of microparticles suspended within the field of a light beam, and this…
Plasmonic vortices (PV) excited by a highly focused radially polarized optical vortex (RPOV) beam on a metal surface are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The proposed method reveals a direct phase singularity and orbital…
We review basic physics and novel types of optical angular momentum. We start with a theoretical overview of momentum and angular momentum properties of generic optical fields, and discuss methods for their experimental measurements. In…
By means of the optical metric, we investigate the propagation of a polarized light in an inhomogeneous medium in this paper. We find that the evolution of photons is affected by the spin-spin interaction of photons, besides the spin-orbit…
Light that carries linear or angular momentum can interact with a mechanical object giving rise to optomechanical effects. In particular, a photon transfers its intrinsic angular momentum to an object when the object either absorbs the…
It has been known for a long time that light carries both linear and angular momenta parallel to the direction of propagation. However, only recently it has been pointed out that beams of light, under certain conditions, may exhibit a…
Fundamental and applied concepts concerning the ability of light beams to carry a certain mechanical angular momentum with respect to the propagation axis are reviewed and discussed. Following issues are included: Historical reference;…
We theoretically investigate the effect of inhomogeneous light beams with (twisted light) and without (plane-wave light) orbital angular momentum on semiconductor-based nanostructures, when the symmetry axes of the beam and the…
Partially gold coated 90 degree glass wedges and a semi - infinite slit in a thin film of gold ending in a conducting nano-junction serve as samples to investigate the transfer of photon spin to electron orbital angular momentum. These…
We provide a vivid demonstration of the mechanical effect of transverse spin momentum in an optical beam in free space. This component of the Poynting momentum was previously thought to be virtual, and unmeasurable. Here, its effect is…
We theoretically discuss a new kind of photonic spin-Hall effect (PSHE) for optical beams propagating inside an inhomogeneously twisted anisotropic material. The rotation angle plays the role of an effective gauge field. When the twisting…
The twist phase of random light represents a nontrivial two-point phase, endowing the field with orbital angular momentum. Although the mutual transition of the spin and orbit angular momenta of coherent light has been revealed, the…