Correlation of the left- and the right-handed circularly polarized waves in an anisotropic crystal

Abstract

An optical torque is induced by incidence of the linearly polarized light and propagating through an anisotropic crystal, which results in self-modulation of the ordinary and the extraordinary waves and causes an energy splitting of the resultant left-, and the right-handed elliptically polarized waves. The optical torque originates from the angular momentum of light, which causes the correlation of the left- and the right-handed circularly polarized waves in the crystal.