Related papers: Molecular chirality and the orbital angular moment…
Light is the fundamental medium through which we perceive the world around us. In the modern era, light can not only be used in its raw form but can also be used as a versatile tool. Generally, light fields carry energy and momentum (both…
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…
Vortices are ubiquitous in nature and can be observed in fluids, condensed matter, and even in the formation of galaxies. Light, too, can evolve like a vortex. Optical vortices are exploited in light-matter interaction, free-space…
The recent demonstration of electron vortex beams has opened up the new possibility of studying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in the interaction between electron beams and matter. To this aim, methods to analyze the OAM of an electron beam…
Chirality is a fundamental concept in physics that underpins various phenomena in nonlinear optics, quantum physics, and topological photonics. Although the spin of a photon naturally brings chirality, orbital angular momentum can also…
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 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…
Chirality is ubiquitous from microscopic to macroscopic phenomena in physics and biology, such as fermionic interactions and DNA duplication. In photonics, chirality has traditionally represented differentiated optical responses for right…
The well-known effects of the spin-orbit interaction of light are manifestations of pair mutual influence of the three types of the angular momentum of light, namely, the spin angular momentum, the extrinsic orbital angular momentum and the…
Recent reports on the intriguing features of vector vortex bearing beams are analyzed using geometric phases in optics. It is argued that the spin redirection phase induced circular birefringence is the origin of topological phase…
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…
The optical chirality and spin angular momentum of structured scalar vortex beams has been intensively studied in recent years. The pseudoscalar topological charge $\ell$ of these beams is responsible for their unique properties.…
We use vortex photon fields with orbital and spin angular momentum to probe chiral fluctuations within liquid crystals. In the regime of iridescence with a well-defined pitch length of chirality, we find low energy Raman scattering that can…
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…
The spin-orbit interaction in a focused-reflected beam of light results in spatially non-uniform polarization in the beam cross-section due to the superposition of orthogonal field components and polarization-dependent interface reflection…
We explore experimentally if the light's orbital angular momentum (OAM) interacts with chiral nematic polymer films. Specifically, we measure the circular dichroism of such a material using light beams with different OAM. We investigate the…
On the one hand, electromagnetic dual particles preserve the helicity of light upon interaction. On the other hand, chiral particles respond differently to light of opposite helicity. These two properties on their own constitute a source of…
We study theoretically the exchange of angular momentum between a photon beam and a plasma vortex, and demonstrate the possible excitation of photon angular momentum states in a plasma. This can be relevant to laboratory and space plasma…
Structured light has emerged as an important tool to interrogate and manipulate matter at micron and sub-micron scale. One form of structured light is an optical vortex beam. The helical wavefront of these vortices carry orbital angular…
The ability to create surface structures with precisely controlled chirality remains a major challenge in laser-matter interaction experiments. In this work, we theoretically study the interaction of vortex laser beams, characterized by…