Related papers: Optically active beams: non-reciprocal optical act…
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…
It is known that internal energy flow in a light beam can be divided into the orbital flow, associated with the macroscopic energy redistribution within the beam, and the spin flow originating from instantaneous rotation of the field…
We investigate the inherent influence of light polarization on the intensity distribution in anisotropic media undergoing a local inhomogeneous rotation of the principal axes. Whereas in general such configuration implies a complicated…
Optical activity (OA), also called circular birefringence, is known for two hundred years, but its applications for topological photonics remain unexplored. Unlike the Faraday effect, OA provokes rotation of the linear polarization of light…
We give an exact self-consistent operator description of the spin and orbital angular momenta, position, and spin-orbit interactions of nonparaxial light in free space. Both quantum-operator formalism and classical energy-flow approach are…
Due to the inhomogeneous polarisation across the beam profile, cylindrical vector beams interact with optically active media in a complex manner. Here, we analyse evolution of polarisation of cylindrical vector beams propagating in an…
Optical isolation enables nonreciprocal manipulations of light with broad applications in optical communications. Optical isolation by rotating structures has drawn considerable attention due to its magnetic-free nature and unprecedented…
Optical vortex beams are a type of topological light characterized by their inherent orbital angular momentum, leading to the propagation of a spiral-shaped wavefront. In this study, we focus on two-dimensional electrons with Rashba and…
Light's orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an unbounded degree of freedom emerging in helical beams that appears very advantageous technologically. Using a chiral microlaser, i.e. an integrated device that allows generating an emission…
Light interacts differently with left and right handed three dimensional chiral objects, like helices, and this leads to the phenomenon known as optical activity. Here, by applying a polarization tomography, we show experimentally, for the…
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…
Right- and left-handed circularly polarized light interact differently with electronic charges in chiral materials. This asymmetry generates the natural circular dichroism and gyrotropy, also known as the optical activity. Here we…
The future fibre optic communications network will rely on photons as carriers of information, which may be stored in intensity, polarization or phase of light. However, processing of such optical information usually relies on electronics.…
Manipulating the spin polarization of electron beams using light is highly desirable but exceedingly challenging, as the approaches proposed in previous studies using free-space light usually require enormous laser intensities. Here, we…
Light carries spin and orbital angular momentum. These dynamical properties are determined by the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of light. Modern nano-optics, photonics, and plasmonics, tend to explore subwavelength scales and…
Light is extensively used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has…
We introduce a chiral metamaterial with strong, non-resonant optical activity, and very low polarization ellipticity. We achieve this by combining a meta-atom and its complementary structure into a meta-molecule, resulting in the coupling…
Under the introduction of any interface in its trajectory, an optical beam experiences polarization-dependent deflections in the longitudinal and transverse directions with respect to the plane of incidence. The physics of such optical beam…
The spin angular momentum in an elliptically polarized beam of light plays several noteworthy roles in optical traps. It contributes to the linear momentum density in a non-uniform beam, and thus to the radiation pressure exerted on…
We report the first demonstration of a direct interaction between the extraordinary transverse spin angular momentum in evanescent waves and the intrinsic orbital angular momentum in optical vortex beams. By tapping the evanescent wave of…