Related papers: Optical angular momentum in dispersive media
We demonstrate that the orbital angular momentum flux density of a paraxial light beam can change on propagation in free space. These changes are entirely due to the spatial coherence state of the source, and the effect is analogous to…
Period-averaged electromagnetic spin angular momentum is a well-established quantity for monochromatic fields, governing phenomena such as light-matter interactions with chiral particles and spin-orbit coupling effects. In contrast, the…
Optically-induced mechanical torque leading to the rotation of small objects requires the presence of absorption or breaking cylindrical symmetry of a scatterer. A spherical non-absorbing particle cannot rotate due to the conservation of…
When light is transmitted through optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic media the spatial distribution of light can be modified according to its input polarization state. A complete analysis of this process, based on the paraxial…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that it is possible to alter the dispersion of a medium without significantly altering its absorption or refractive index and that this may be done while a wave propagates through the medium. This…
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…
We investigate the decomposition of the electromagnetic Poynting momentum density in three-dimensional random monochromatic fields into orbital and spin parts, using analytical and numerical methods. In sharp contrast with the paraxial…
When light is passing through a rotating medium the optical polarisation is rotated. Recently it has been reasoned that this rotation applies also to the transmitted image (Padgett et al. 2006). We examine these two phenomena by extending…
Light beam with optical vortices can propagate in free space only with integer orbital angular momentum. Here, we invert this scientific consensus theoretically and experimentally by proposing light beams carrying natural non-integer…
Spin-orbit interactions in optics traditionally describe an influence of the polarization degree of freedom of light on its spatial properties. The most prominent example is the generation of a spin-dependent optical vortex upon focusing or…
We consider an optically thick spherical agglomerate of magneto-optical scatterers with a central isotropic, unpolarized light source, placed in a homogeneous magnetic field. The Photon Hall Effect induces a rotating Poynting vector, both…
Radiation from a localized, oscillating charge distribution can have angular momentum that cannot be explained in classical electrodynamics. We consider the simplest example -- electric dipole radiation of a single photon -- and show that…
We examine several retro-reflecting optical elements, each involving two reflections. In the case of a hollow metallic cone having an apex angle of 90\degree, a circularly-polarized incident beam acquires, upon reflection, the opposite spin…
The transverse beam pattern, usually observed in experiment, is a result of averaging the optical-frequency oscillations of the electromagnetic field distributed over the beam cross section. An analytical criterion is derived that these…
Propagation of gamma-beam in the anisotropic medium is considered. The simpliest example of such a medium of the general type is a combination of the two linearly polarized monochromatic laser waves with different frequencies (dichromatic…
When the effects of dispersion are included, neither the Abraham nor the Minkowski expression for electromagnetic momentum in a dielectric medium gives the correct recoil momentum for absorbers or emitters of radiation. The total momentum…
The evolution of an entangled photon state propagating through a turbulent atmosphere is formulated in terms of a set of coupled first order differential equations, by using an infinitesimal propagation approach. The orbital angular…
Waves of various types carry momentum, which is associated with their propagation direction, i.e., the phase gradient. The circulation of the wave momentum density gives rise to orbital angular momentum (AM). Additionally, for waves…
According to the scientific literature, the momentum of a photon in a simple linear dielectric is either $\hbar\omega/(nc)$ or $n\hbar\omega/c$ with a unit vector ${\bf \hat e}_k$ in the direction of propagation. These momentums are…
We consider the optical theorem for scattering of electromagnetic waves in nonlinear media. This result is used to obtain the power extinguished from a field by a nonlinear scatterer. The cases of second harmonic generation and the Kerr…