Spin–orbit interactions of light

By K. Bliokh, Francisco J. Rodriguez-Fortuno, Franco Nori, Anatoly V. Zayats. Nature Photonics, 2015

2,037 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This Review article provides an overview of the fundamental origins and important applications of the main spin–orbit interaction phenomena in modern optics that play a crucial role at subwavelength scales. Light carries both spin and orbital angular momentum. These dynamical properties are determined by the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of light. Nano-optics, photonics and plasmonics tend to explore subwavelength scales and additional degrees of freedom of structured — that is, spatially inhomogeneous — optical fields. In such fields, spin and orbital properties become strongly coupled with each other. In this Review we cover the fundamental origins and important applications of the main spin–orbit interaction phenomena in optics. These include: spin-Hall effects in inhomogeneous media and at optical interfaces, spin-dependent effects in nonparaxial (focused or scattered) fields, spin-controlled shaping of light using anisotropic structured interfaces (metasurfaces) and robust spin-directional coupling via evanescent near fields. We show that spin–orbit interactions are inherent in all basic optical processes, and that they play a crucial role in modern optics.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Biomedical Engineering, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f62ad828a8b1b82f5121f856b83f8a84d306821f

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Citations in the corpus

Geometric phase from Aharonov–Bohm to Pancharatnam–Berry and beyond (2019, background): “of ℓ, a topological charge of 𝑞=ℓ/2 is imprinted. The generation of OAM-carrying beams using the 𝑞-plate has also been recognized as being the result of spin-orbit coupling in an inhomogeneous medium (132, 133). In addition to carrying OAM, light may also carry spin angular momentum (SAM). For ins”
On-demand directional microwave photon emission using waveguide quantum electrodynamics (2022, background): “The chiral regime is naturally accessible within a nanophotonics platform, because the transverse confinement of light in optical nanowaveguides links the propagation direction of an emitted photon to the local polarization of an atom [9, 53].”
Artificial gauge fields in materials and engineered systems (2017, positive): “A strong enhancement of spin–orbit coupling effects can be achieved using tightly focused light or using light field structures at the sub-wavelength scale, including nano-optic, photonic, or plasmonic systems [425].”
A review of gap-surface plasmon metasurfaces: fundamentals and applications (2018, background): “Metasurface-based vortex-beam generators have recently gained tremendous interest because of potential applications in optical trapping, high-resolution microscopy, and quantum communication technology [19, 196].”