Related papers: Generating optical angular momentum through wavefr…
A circularly polarized rotationally symmetric paraxial laser beams carries hbar angular momentum per photon as spin. Focussing the beam with a rotationally symmetric lens cannot change this angular momentum flux, yet the focussed beam must…
We review basic physics and novel types of optical angular momentum. We start with a theoretical overview of momentum and angular momentum properties of generic optical fields, and discuss methods for their experimental measurements. In…
It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that is…
Fundamental and applied concepts concerning the ability of light beams to carry a certain mechanical angular momentum with respect to the propagation axis are reviewed and discussed. Following issues are included: Historical reference;…
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…
We introduce a new method to generate and tune the optical orbital angular momentum of a focused Gaussian beam passing through the optical superlattice under the electro-optic effect. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) arises from the curl…
It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that…
It has been known for a long time that light carries both linear and angular momenta parallel to the direction of propagation. However, only recently it has been pointed out that beams of light, under certain conditions, may exhibit a…
We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wavefront…
Spin-orbit interactions in optics traditionally describe an influence of the polarization degree of freedom of light on its spatial properties. The most prominent example is the generation of a spin-dependent optical vortex upon focusing or…
We demonstrate that tight focusing of a circularly polarized Gaussian beam in optical tweezers leads to spin-momentum locking - with the transverse spin angular momentum density being independent of helicity, while the transverse momentum…
Converting spin angular momentum to orbital angular momentum has been shown to be a practical and efficient method for generating optical beams carrying orbital angular momentum and possessing a space-varying polarized field. Here, we…
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…
Spin angular momentum, an elementary dynamical property of classical electromagnetic fields, plays an important role in spin-orbit and light-matter interactions, especially in near-field optics. The research on optical spins has led to the…
A ray-optics model is proposed to describe the vector beam transformation in a strongly focusing optical system. In contrast to usual approaches basing on the focused field distribution near the focal plane, we employ the transformed 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 demonstrate the spin to orbital angular momentum transfer in the nonlinear mixing of structured light beams. A vector vortex is coupled to a circularly polarized Gaussian beam in noncollinear second harmonic generation under type-II…
We investigate in detail the focusing of a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam ($\hbar \ell$ orbital angular momentum per photon; $\sigma=1/-1$ for left/right-handed polarization) by a high numerical aperture objective. 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…
The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) of light generated by tight focusing in optical tweezers has been regularly employed in generating angular momentum - both spin and orbital - in trapped mesoscopic particles. Specifically, the transverse…