Related papers: Directions In Optical Angular Momentum
It is shown that the photon picture of the electromagnetic field enables one to determine unambiguously the splitting of the total angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into the orbital part and the spin part.
The transverse component of the spin angular momentum of evanescent waves gives rise to lateral optical forces on chiral particles, which have the unusual property of acting in a direction in which there is neither a field gradient nor wave…
By means of the Helmholtz theorem on the decomposition of vector fields, the angular momentum of the classical electromagnetic field is decomposed, in a general and manifestly gauge invariant manner, into a spin component and an orbital…
We set forth a method to analyze the orbital angular momentum of a light field. Instead of using the canonical formalism for the conjugate pair angle-angular momentum, we model this latter variable by the superposition of two independent…
Light carries intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM) when the electric or magnetic field vector rotates over time. A familiar vector equation calculates the direction of light's SAM density using the right hand rule with reference to the…
Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum, such as Laguerre-Gaussian beams, give rise to the violation of the standard dipolar selection rules during the interaction with matter yielding, in general, an exchange of angular momentum…
Recently, Tang and Cohen (Science 332, 333, 2011) have demonstrated a scheme to enhance the chiral response of molecules, which relies on the use of circularly polarized light in a standing wave configuration. Here we show a new type of…
We present a study of the properties of the transversal "spin angular momentum" and "orbital angular momentum" operators. We show that the "spin angular momentum" operators are generators of spatial translations which depend on helicity and…
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…
In exploring the light-induced dynamics within the linear response regime, this study investigates the induced orbital angular momentum on a wide variety of electronic structures. We derive a general expression for the torque induced by…
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…
New forms of electron beams have been intensively investigated recently, including vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum, as well as Airy beams propagating along a parabolic trajectory. Their traits may be harnessed for…
Invoking Maxwell's classical equations in conjunction with expressions for the electromagnetic (EM) energy, momentum, force, and torque, we use a few simple examples to demonstrate the nature of the EM angular momentum. The energy and the…
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light appears when the phase of an electromagnetic wavefront winds around its direction of propagation, also known as optical vorticity. Contrary to the binary-valued photon spin, the integer-valued optical…
Electromagnetic waves with an azimuthal phase shift are known to have a well defined orbital angular momentum. Different methods that allow for the detection of the angular momentum are proposed. For some, we discuss the required…
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…
The phenomenon of molecular optical activity manifests itself as the rotation of the plane of linear polarization when light passes through chiral media. Measurements of optical activity and its wavelength dependence, optical rotatory…
It is generally believed that dispersive polarimetric detection of collective angular momentum in large atomic spin systems gives rise to: squeezing in the measured observable, anti-squeezing in a conjugate observable, and collective spin…
Helicity $H$, chirality $C$, and spin angular momentum $\mathbf{S}$ are three physical observables that play an important role in the study of optical fields. These quantities are closely related, but their connection is hidden by the use…
It is well-known that electric spin angular momentum and electric orbital angular momentum are conserved under paraxial propagation of travelling waves in free-space. Here we study the electric and magnetic angular momentum in…