Revisiting the photonic orbital Hall effect with the vortex mode decomposition

Abstract

The photonic orbital Hall effect (POHE) refers to the vortex-dependent beam shifts, which is generally believed to result from the conversion of intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM) to extrinsic orbital angular momentum (EOAM). However, the physical mechanism of the POHE, such as how the IOAM is converted to the EOAM, remains further elucidation. In this paper, we re-examine the POHE of a vortex beam with additional IOAM illuminating at an optically thin slab by means of vortex mode decomposition. By considering the competition and coupling between the radial and azimuthal vortex harmonics of the abnormal mode in the transmitted beam, it is found that the underlying mechanism of the POHE is in fact a spin-to-orbital angular momentum (OAM) conversion process. And the IOAM carried by the incident beam is directly superimposed on the OAM obtained during the conversion. Our findings not only offer an alternative perspective for understanding the POHE, but also exhibit application potential in orbit–orbit and spin–orbit optical components.