Related papers: Light--absorbed orbital angular momentum in the li…
Photons carry one unit of angular momentum associated with their spin~\cite{Beth1936}. Structured vortex beams carry additional orbital angular momentum which can also be transferred to matter~\cite{Allen1992}. This extra twist has been…
Magnetic recording using circularly polarized femto-second laser pulses is an emerging technology that would allow write speeds much faster than existing field driven methods. However, the mechanism that drives the magnetization switching…
We report two light-induced orbital magnetization effects in quantum Hall (QH) fluids, stemming from their transverse response. The first is a purely transverse contribution to the inverse Faraday effect (IFE), where circularly polarized…
Recent developments in the understanding of optical angular momentum have resulted in many demonstrations of unusual optical phenomena, such as optical beams with orbital angular momentum and transverse spinning light. Here we detail novel…
We present a novel mechanism in which plasma electrons and ions optically acquire angular momentum during local pump depletion of an azimuthally polarized laser, despite the laser carrying none. Using theoretical considerations and…
To date, optical orientation of free-carrier spins and spin currents have been achieved by circularly polarized light, while the linearly polarized light has been used for optical alignment of electron momenta. Here we show that, in…
The nature of light-matter interaction is governed by the spatial-temporal structures of a light field and material wavefunctions. The emergence of the light beam with transverse phase vortex, or equivalently orbital angular momentum (OAM)…
Radiation of electromagnetic energy by electric or magnetic multipole sources can be modified by their local environment. In this work we demonstrate that a magneto-optical environment of an unpolarized dipole source induces the radiation…
Hidden multipolar orders in spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulators provide a promising setting for correlated quantum matter, yet their control and detection remain major challenges. Here, we demonstrate that circularly polarized light enables…
The inverse Faraday effect is a magneto-optical process allowing the magnetization of matter by an optical excitation carrying a non-zero spin of light. In particular, a right circular polarization generates a magnetization in the direction…
Light can carry a spin angular momentum, an intrinsic and extrinsic orbital angular momentum, associated with a circular polarization, optical vortex beams, and varying beam trajectories, respectively. The interplay between these momenta…
A linearly polarized Gaussian beam, carrying zero net spin angular momentum, is conventionally not expected to exert optical torque or induce rotational motion in birefringent microparticles. When such a beam is tightly focused, the…
The spin transfer torque is a phenomenon in which angular momentum of a spin polarized electrical current entering a ferromagnet is transferred to the magnetization. The effect has opened a new research field of electrically driven…
Results of a fairly straightforward experiment on resonant magneto-optical rotation by rubidium-87 atoms revealed strong time-dependence of the polarization plane of light emerging from atomic vapors following a sudden irradiation with a…
It is usually admitted that the inverse Faraday effect (IFE) originates from the spin angular momentum (SAM) of light. In this paper, we evidence that part of the IFE in a metal is induced by the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light. On…
We explain the rotational Doppler effect associated with light beams carrying with orbital angular momentum in left-handed materials (LHMs). We demonstrate that the rotational Doppler effect in LHMs is unreversed, which is significantly…
We theoretically investigate the effect of inhomogeneous light beams with (twisted light) and without (plane-wave light) orbital angular momentum on semiconductor-based nanostructures, when the symmetry axes of the beam and the…
We experimentally demonstrate orbiting of isotropic, dielectric microparticles around an optical nanofiber that guides elliptically polarized fundamental modes. The driving transverse radiation force appears in the evanescent…
Irradiating solids with ultrashort laser pulses is known to initiate femtosecond timescale magnetization dynamics. However, sub-femtosecond spin dynamics have not yet been observed or predicted. Here, we explore ultrafast light-driven spin…
Twisted light beams, or optical vortices, have been used to drive the circular motion of microscopic particles in optical tweezers and have been shown to generate vortices in quantum gases. Recent studies have established that electric…