Related papers: Transverse spin of light for all wavefields
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 obtain the angular distribution of the cosmic rays reaching an observer from an individual source and after propagation through a turbulent magnetic field, for different ratios between the source distance and the diffusion length. We…
We put forward a powerful technique that allows generating quasi-non-diffracting light beams with a variety of complex transverse shapes and topologies. We show that, e.g., spiraling patterns, patterns featuring curved or bent bright…
The existence of twisted light may be inferred from modern quantum concepts and experimental data. These waves possess energy, impulse and angular momentum. However, the Maxwell's four-dimensional theory of electromagnetism does not imply…
The dynamical characteristics of electromagnetic fields include energy, momentum, angular momentum (spin) and helicity. We analyze their spatial distributions near the planar interface between two transparent and non-dispersive media, when…
As a relativistic quantum mechanical effect, it is shown that the electric field exerting a transverse force on an electron spin 1/2 only if the electron is moving and the spin is polarized along the electric field. The spin force, analogue…
Following the demonstration that gravitational waves impart linear momentum, it is argued that if they are polarized they should impart angular momentum to appropriately placed 'test rods' in their path. A general formula for this angular…
Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically polarized…
We theoretically describe the quasi one-dimensional transverse spreading of a light pulse propagating in a nonlinear optical material in the presence of a uniform background light intensity. For short propagation distances the pulse can be…
We show theoretically that a directional dipole wave can be perfectly reflected by a single point-like oscillating dipole. Furthermore, we find that in the case of a strongly focused plane wave up to 85 % of the incident light can be…
Electromagnetic plane waves, solutions to Maxwell's equations, are said to be `transverse' in vacuum. Namely, the waves' oscillatory electric and magnetic fields are confined within a plane transverse to the waves' propagation direction.…
Optical absorption of circularly polarized light is well known to yield an electron spin polarization in direct band gap semiconductors. We demonstrate that electron spins can even be generated with high efficiency by absorption of linearly…
Recently the new concepts of transverse spin angular momentum and Belinfante spin momentum of evanescent waves have drawn considerable attention. Here, we investigate these novel physical properties of electromagnetic fields in the context…
Structured beams of light can move small objects in surprising ways. Particularly striking examples include observations of polarization-dependent forces acting on optically isotropic objects and tractor beams that can pull objects opposite…
Starting from Stratton-Panofsky-Phillips-Jefimenko equations for the electric and magnetic fields generated by completely arbitrary charge and current density distributions at rest, we derive far-zone approximations for the fields,…
Recently the spectacular result was derived quantum mechanically that the total angular momentum of photons in light beams with finite lateral extensions can have half-integer quantum numbers. In a circularly polarized Gauss light beam it…
We show that when an electron or photon propagates in a cylindrically symmetric waveguide, its spin angular momentum (SAM) and its orbital angular momentum (OAM) interact. Remarkably, we find that the dynamics resulting from this spin-orbit…
We propose a single phase-only optical element that transforms different orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes into localized spots at separated angular positions on a transverse plane. We refer to this element as an angular lens since it…
We compare three attempts that have been made to decompose the angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into components of an "orbital" and "spin" nature. All three expressions are different and it appears, on the basis of classical…
Lossless linear wave propagation is symmetric in time, a principle which can be used to create time reversed waves. Such waves are special 'pre-scattered' spatiotemporal fields, which propagate through a complex medium as if observing a…