Geometrodynamics of Spinning Light
arXiv:0810.2136 · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.229
Abstract
The semiclassical evolution of spinning particles has recently been re-examined in condensed matter physics, high energy physics, and optics, resulting in the prediction of the intrinsic spin Hall effect associated with the Berry phase. A fundamental nature of this effect is related to the spin-orbit interaction and topological monopoles. Here we report a unified theory and a direct observation of two mutual phenomena: a spin-dependent deflection (the spin Hall effect) of photons and the precession of the Stokes vector along the coiled ray trajectory of classical geometrical optics. Our measurements are in perfect agreement with theoretical predictions, thereby verifying the dynamical action of the topological Berry-phase monopole in the evolution of light. These results may have promising applications in nano-optics and can be immediately extrapolated to the evolution of massless particles in a variety of physical systems.
18 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Nature Photonics
References in corpus (4)
- 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
- 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