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Register a new userThe magnetic and electric transverse spin density of spatially confined light
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When a beam of light is laterally confined, its field distribution can exhibit points where the local magnetic and electric field vectors spin in a plane containing the propagation direction of the electromagnetic wave. The phenomenon indicates the presence of a non-zero transverse spin density. Here, we experimentally investigate this transverse spin density of both magnetic and electric fields, occurring in highly-confined structured fields of light. Our scheme relies on the utilization of a high-refractive-index nano-particle as local field probe, exhibiting magnetic and electric dipole resonances in the visible spectral range. Because of the directional emission of dipole moments which spin around an axis parallel to a nearby dielectric interface, such a probe particle is capable of locally sensing the magnetic and electric transverse spin density of a tightly focused beam impinging under normal incidence with respect to said interface. We exploit the achieved experimental results to emphasize the difference between magnetic and electric transverse spin densities.
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We generate tightly focused optical vector beams whose electric fields spin around an axis transverse to the beams propagation direction. We experimentally investigate these fields by exploiting the directional near-field interference of a dipole-like plasmonic field probe, placed adjacent to a dielectric interface, which depends on the transverse electric spin density of the excitation field. Near- to far-field conversion mediated by the dielectric interface enables us to detect the directionality of the emitted light in the far-field and, therefore, to measure the transverse electric spin density with nanoscopic resolution. Finally, we determine the longitudinal electric component of Belinfantes elusive spin momentum density, a solenoidal field quantity often referred to as virtual.
When a light beam is strongly laterally confined, its field vector spins in a plane not perpendicular to the propagation direction, leading to the presence of transverse spin angular momentum, which plays a crucial role in the field of chiral quantum optics. The existing techniques to measure the transverse spin density require complex setups and sophisticated time-consuming procedures. Here, we propose a scheme to measure the transverse spin density of an optical field in real time using a multi-level atomic medium. The susceptibility of the medium is spatially modulated by the transverse spin via electromagnetically induced transparency. The distribution of the transverse spin is then extracted by measuring the distributions of the Stokes parameters of another collimated probe field.
Tightly focused light beams can exhibit electric fields spinning around any axis including the one transverse to the beams propagation direction. At certain focal positions, the corresponding local polarization ellipse can degenerate into a perfect circle, representing a point of circular polarization, or C-point. We consider the most fundamental case of a linearly polarized Gaussian beam, where - upon tight focusing - those C-points created by transversely spinning fields can form the center of 3D optical polarization topologies when choosing the plane of observation appropriately. Due to the high symmetry of the focal field, these polarization topologies exhibit non trivial structures similar to Mobius strips. We use a direct physical measure to find C-points with an arbitrarily oriented spinning axis of the electric field and experimentally investigate the fully three-dimensional polarization topologies surrounding these C-points by exploiting an amplitude and phase reconstruction technique.
Quantum spin-Hall effect, a manifestation of topological properties that govern the behavior of surface states, was studied intensively in condensed matter physics resulting in the discovery of topological insulators. The quantum spin-Hall effect of light was introduced for surface plane-waves which intrinsically carry transverse optical spin, leading to many intriguing phenomena and applications in unidirectional waveguiding, metrology and quantum technologies. In addition to spin, optical waves can exhibit complex topological properties of vectorial electromagnetic fields, associated with orbital angular momentum or nonuniform intensity variations. Here, by considering both spin and angular momentum, we demonstrate a generalized spin-momentum relationship that governs vectorial properties of guided electromagnetic waves, extending optical quantum spin-Hall effect to a two-dimensional vector field of structured guided wave. The effect results in the appearance of the out-of-plane transverse optical spins, which vary progressively from the up state to the down state around the energy flow, and their variation is uniquely locked to the energy propagation direction. The related spin-momentum locking in a chiral spin swirl is demonstrated with four kinds of surface structured waves and proven both theoretically and experimentally. The results provide understanding of the spin dynamics in electromagnetic guided waves and show great importance in spin optics, topological photonics and optical spin-based devices and techniques.
Spatially inhomogeneous fields of electromagnetic guided modes exhibit a complex of extraordinary dynamical properties such as the polarization-dependent transverse momentum, helicity-independent transverse spin, spin-associated non-reciprocity and unidirectional propagation, etc. Recently, the remarkable relationship has been established between the spin and propagation features of such fields, expressed through the spin-momentum equations [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 118 (2021) e2018816118] connecting the wave spin with the curl of momentum. Here, the meaning, limitations and specific forms of this correspondence are further investigated, involving the physically transparent and consistent examples of paraxial light fields, plane-wave superpositions and evanescent waves. The conclusion is inferred that the spin-momentum equation is an attribute of guided waves with well defined direction of propagation, and it unites the helicity-independent extraordinary transverse spin with the spatially-inhomogeneous longitudinal field momentum (energy flow) density. Physical analogies with the layered hydrodynamic flows and possible generalizations for other wave fields are discussed. The results can be useful in optical trapping, manipulation and the data processing techniques.
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