Photonic spin Hall effect in uniaxially strained graphene

Abstract

Graphene is one of the thinnest conductive materials which possesses unique mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Owing to its inherent unique mechanical flexibility and strength, it has potential applications in various flexible nanophotonic devices. In this paper, we present theoretical investigations of the spin Hall effect of a light beam reflected from the surface of the strained graphene substrate system subjected to uniaxial strain. Using appropriate boundary conditions for the incident and reflected beams based on the angular spectrum analysis, we derive mathematical expressions for the transverse photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) for the strained graphene. By tuning the applied strain along zigzag and armchair orientations, we explore the giant PSHE in the graphene substrate system. We show the impact of chemical potential, incident photon energy, and applied strain on the photonic spin Hall shifts. We believe that the PSHE may thus serve as a versatile tool to probe the applied strain in novel 2D materials.