Related papers: The ubiquitous photonic wheel
We analyze the interference field formed by two electromagnetic plane waves (with the same frequency but different wave vectors), and find that such field reveals a rich and highly non-trivial structure of the local momentum and spin…
A study of nonreciprocal transverse-spin angular-momentum-density shifts for evanescent waves in magneto-optic waveguide media is presented. Their functional relation to electromagnetic spin- and orbital-momenta is presented and analyzed.…
We present an elementary discussion of the momentum transferred by an electromagnetic wave propagating in a dispersive medium. Our analysis is based on Minkowski's electromagnetic momentum density which have been recently seen to be…
The dynamics of vortex rings in fluids have long captivated researchers due to the intriguing complexity of their behavior, despite the apparent simplicity of their structure. In optics, photonic toroidal vortices constitute a novel class…
We develop the quantum theory of transverse angular momentum of light beams. The theory applies to paraxial and quasi-paraxial photon beams in vacuum, and reproduces the known results for classical beams when applied to coherent states of…
The photon spin is an important resource for quantum information processing as is the electron spin in spintronics. However, for subwavelength confined optical excitations, polarization as a global property of a mode cannot be defined.…
In a typical experiment in magnonics, thin films are magnetized in-plane and spin waves only carry angular momentum along their spatial propagation direction. Motivated by the experiments of Bozhko et al. [Phys. Rev. Research 2, 023324…
We provide an introduction to complex photonic media, that is, composite materials with spatial inhomogeneities that are distributed over length scales comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light. This blossoming field is firmly…
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…
We present a mathematical formalism describing the propagation of a completely general electromagnetic wave in a birefringent medium. Analytic formulas for the refraction and reflection from a plane interface are obtained. As a particular…
We consider spin angular momentum density in inhomogeneous acoustic fields: evanescent waves and surface waves at interfaces with negative-density metamaterials. Despite being purely longitudinal (curl-free), acoustic waves possess…
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…
Traditionally, the angular momentum of light is calculated for "bullet-like" electromagnetic wave packets, although in actual optical experiments "pencil-like" beams of light are more commonly used. The fact that a wave packet is bounded…
Light forces induced by scattering and absorption in elastic dielectrics lead to local density modulations and deformations. These perturbations in turn modify light propagation in the medium and generate an intricate nonlinear response. We…
According to the classical Einstein-Maxwell theory of gravity and electromagnetism, a light-wave traveling in empty space-time is accompanied by a gravitational field of the pp-type. Therefore point masses are scattered by a light wave,…
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…
Electrically generated spin accumulation due to the spin Hall effect is imaged in n-GaAs channels using Kerr rotation microscopy, focusing on its spatial distribution and time-averaged behavior in a magnetic field. Spatially-resolved…
We describe a novel phenomenon occurring when a polarized Gaussian beam of light is observed in a Cartesian reference frame whose axes are not parallel to the direction of propagation of the beam. Such phenomenon amounts to an intriguing…
The well-known diffusion theory describes propagation of light and electromagnetic waves in complex media. While diffusion theory is known to fail both for predominant forward scattering or strong absorption, its precise range of validity…
The classical electromagnetic field of a spinless point electron is described in a formalism with extended causality by discrete finite transverse point-vector fields with discrete and localized point interactions. These fields are taken as…