Coriolis Effect in Optics: Unified Geometric Phase and Spin-Hall Effect

Abstract

We examine the spin-orbit coupling effects that appear when a wave carrying intrinsic angular momentum interacts with a medium. The Berry phase is shown to be a manifestation of the Coriolis effect in a non-inertial reference frame attached to the wave. In the most general case, when both the direction of propagation and the state of the wave are varied, the phase is given by a simple expression that unifies the spin redirection Berry phase and the Pancharatnam--Berry phase. The theory is supported by the experiment demonstrating the spin-orbit coupling of electromagnetic waves via a surface plasmon nano-structure. The measurements verify the unified geometric phase, demonstrated by the observed polarization-dependent shift (spin-Hall effect) of the waves.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• Conservation of Angular Momentum, Transverse Shift, and Spin Hall Effect in Reflection and Refraction of Electromagnetic Wave Packet
• Efficient unidirectional nanoslit couplers for surface plasmons
• Modified geometrical optics of a smoothly inhomogeneous isotropic medium: the anisotropy, Berry phase, and the optical Magnus effect
• Non-Abelian evolution of electromagnetic waves in a weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous medium