Observation of mechanical Faraday effect in gas media

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of the rotation of the polarization plane of light propagating in a gas of fast-spinning molecules (molecular super-rotors). In the observed effect, related to Fermi's prediction of "polarization drag" by a rotating medium, the vector of linear polarization tilts in the direction of molecular rotation due to the rotation-induced difference in the refractive indices for the left and right circularly polarized components. We use an optical centrifuge to bring the molecules in a gas sample to ultrafast unidirectional rotation and measure the polarization drag angles of the order of 0.2 milliradians in a number of gases under ambient conditions. We demonstrate an all-optical control of the drag magnitude and direction, and investigate the robustness of the mechanical Faraday effect with respect to molecular collisions.

References in corpus (4)

• Controlled enantioselective orientation of chiral molecules with an optical centrifuge
• Effects of ultrafast molecular rotation on collisional decoherence
• Do pulsars rotate clockwise or counterclockwise?
• Giant Polarization Drag in a Gas of Molecular Superrotors

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Wave propagation in rotating magnetised plasmas
• Rotation of polarization of light propagating through a gas of molecular super-rotors
• Image rotation in plasmas
• State- and molecule-selective rotational control in gas mixtures with a shaped optical centrifuge
• Faraday-Fresnel rotation and splitting of orbital angular momentum carrying waves in a rotating plasma