Optical angular momentum in dispersive media

Abstract

The angular momentum density and flux of light in a dispersive, rotationally symmetric medium are derived from Noether's theorem. Optical angular momentum in a dispersive medium has no simple relation to optical linear momentum, even if the medium is homogeneous. A circularly polarized monochromatic beam in a homogeneous, dispersive medium carries a spin angular momentum of $\pm \hslash$ per energy $\hslash \omega$, as in vacuum. This result demonstrates the non-trivial interplay of dispersive contributions to optical angular momentum and energy.

4 pages

References in corpus (1)

• Electromagnetic force and torque in ponderable media

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