Transverse spinning of unpolarized light

Joerg Eismann; Luke Nicholls; Diane Roth; Miguel A. Alonso; Peter Banzer; Francisco Rodriguez Fortuno; Anatoly Zayats; Franco Nori; Konstantin Bliokh

Transverse spinning of unpolarized light

Joerg Eismann, Luke Nicholls, Diane Roth, Miguel A. Alonso, Peter Banzer, Francisco Rodriguez Fortuno, Anatoly Zayats, Franco Nori, Konstantin Bliokh

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Abstract

It is well known that the spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of photons, is directly related to their circular polaris ation. Naturally, for totally unpolarised light, polarisation is undefined and the spin vanishes. However, for nonparaxial light, the recently discovered transverse spin component, orthogonal to the main propagation direction, is largely independent of the polarisation state of the wave. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that this transverse spin survives even in nonparaxial fields (e.g., focused or evanescent) generated from totally unpolarised paraxial light. This counterintuitive phenomenon is closely related to the fundamental difference between the meaning of ‘full depolarisation’ for 2D paraxial and 3D nonparaxial fields . Our results open an avenue for studies of spin-related phenomena and optical manipulation using unpolarised light.

Original language	English
Journal	Nature Photonics
Early online date	21 Dec 2020
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 21 Dec 2020

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Transverse_spinning_NatPhot_acceptedAccepted author manuscript, 26.2 MB

Cite this

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title = "Transverse spinning of unpolarized light",

abstract = "It is well known that the spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of photons, is directly related to their circular polaris ation. Naturally, for totally unpolarised light, polarisation is undefined and the spin vanishes. However, for nonparaxial light, the recently discovered transverse spin component, orthogonal to the main propagation direction, is largely independent of the polarisation state of the wave. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that this transverse spin survives even in nonparaxial fields (e.g., focused or evanescent) generated from totally unpolarised paraxial light. This counterintuitive phenomenon is closely related to the fundamental difference between the meaning of {\textquoteleft}full depolarisation{\textquoteright} for 2D paraxial and 3D nonparaxial fields . Our results open an avenue for studies of spin-related phenomena and optical manipulation using unpolarised light.",

author = "Joerg Eismann and Luke Nicholls and Diane Roth and Alonso, {Miguel A.} and Peter Banzer and {Rodriguez Fortuno}, Francisco and Anatoly Zayats and Franco Nori and Konstantin Bliokh",

year = "2020",

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language = "English",

journal = "Nature Photonics",

issn = "1749-4885",

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T1 - Transverse spinning of unpolarized light

AU - Eismann, Joerg

AU - Nicholls, Luke

AU - Roth, Diane

AU - Alonso, Miguel A.

AU - Banzer, Peter

AU - Rodriguez Fortuno, Francisco

AU - Zayats, Anatoly

AU - Nori, Franco

AU - Bliokh, Konstantin

PY - 2020/12/21

Y1 - 2020/12/21

N2 - It is well known that the spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of photons, is directly related to their circular polaris ation. Naturally, for totally unpolarised light, polarisation is undefined and the spin vanishes. However, for nonparaxial light, the recently discovered transverse spin component, orthogonal to the main propagation direction, is largely independent of the polarisation state of the wave. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that this transverse spin survives even in nonparaxial fields (e.g., focused or evanescent) generated from totally unpolarised paraxial light. This counterintuitive phenomenon is closely related to the fundamental difference between the meaning of ‘full depolarisation’ for 2D paraxial and 3D nonparaxial fields . Our results open an avenue for studies of spin-related phenomena and optical manipulation using unpolarised light.

AB - It is well known that the spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of photons, is directly related to their circular polaris ation. Naturally, for totally unpolarised light, polarisation is undefined and the spin vanishes. However, for nonparaxial light, the recently discovered transverse spin component, orthogonal to the main propagation direction, is largely independent of the polarisation state of the wave. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that this transverse spin survives even in nonparaxial fields (e.g., focused or evanescent) generated from totally unpolarised paraxial light. This counterintuitive phenomenon is closely related to the fundamental difference between the meaning of ‘full depolarisation’ for 2D paraxial and 3D nonparaxial fields . Our results open an avenue for studies of spin-related phenomena and optical manipulation using unpolarised light.

M3 - Article

SN - 1749-4885

JO - Nature Photonics

JF - Nature Photonics

ER -