Circular motion of particles by the help of the spin part of the internal energy flow

Abstract

Non-spherical dielectric microparticles were suspended in the water-filled cell and exposed to the coherent Gaussian light beam with switchable state of polarization. When the beam polarization is linear, the particles were trapped at certain off-axial position within the beam cross section. After switching to the right (left) circular polarization, the particles performed spinning motion in agreement with the angular momentum imparted by the field, but also they were involved in the orbital rotation around the beam axis, which in previous works [Y. Zhao et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 073901 (2007)] was treated as an evidence for the spin-to orbital angular momentum conversion. Since in our situation the moderate focusing of the beam excluded possibility of such a conversion, we treat the observed particle behaviour as a demonstration of the macroscopic “spin energy flow” predicted by the theory of inhomogeneously polarized paraxial beams [A. Bekshaev et al, J. Opt. 13, 053001 (2011)].