Beyond catoptrics

Abstract

The laws of geometrical optics are older than physics, if we define Newton as the first physicist. The law of reflection, for example, goes back about 3000 years and is first mentioned in a book called 'Catoptrics' or 'Mirrors' [1]. The law for refraction, on the other hand, is apparently 2000 years younger, although it is traditionally attributed to Snell [2]. However, geometrical optics with its rays was superseded another 600 years later by wave optics and light beams. Whereas beams are in many respects a good approximation of rays, they are never fully localized and consist of a spread of plane-wave components to provide transverse confinement. It is precisely this spread in Fourier space which leads to deviations from the laws of reflection and refraction. Upon reflection or transmission at an interface, a light beam can thus experience a shift, either in its position or propagation direction, when compared with specular reflection or Snell's law of refraction.While the discovery of these effects is not new (2013 marks the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the Goos–Hänchen shift, though publication was delayed until 1947 [3]), there has been renewed interest in these small corrections to geometrical optics, owing to advances in precision optics and theoretical understanding. In particular, for the latter, it is only in the last few years that an agreement on analytical formulas has been reached. It is now well established that beam shifts in general can be understood as a manifestation of optical spin–orbit coupling, an emerging field of research which draws many parallels between optics and quantum mechanics. One of the earliest examples thereof is the Imbert–Fedorov effect (Fedorov's original article is featured in translation in this special issue4 [4]), a counterpart to the Goos–Hänchen shift, but directed out of the plane of incidence.Today, beam shifts are discussed within a large number of fields, such as weak measurements, geometrical phases, light’s orbital angular momentum, electron vortices, ballistic electrons in graphene, neutron and other particle beams, and many more; furthermore, applications such as refractive-index (bio)sensing have been developed. They are also essential for understanding the dynamics in micro-cavities, and therefore crucial for the development of micro-lasers. This special issue contains contributions from many of these fields and provides a showcase for the importance of subtle effects in modern optics and quantum mechanics.