Photon Spin Angular Momentum Research Articles

Achieving bi-anisotropic coupling through uniform temporal modulations without inversion symmetry disruption.

Temporal modulations provide a new approach for realizing metamaterials. In this study, through the imposition of uniform temporal modulations, we achieve two types of reciprocal bi-anisotropic metamaterials. Notably, these achievements do not rely on any spatial modulation, preserving inversion symmetry at any instantaneous time. This stands in sharp contrast to the scenario of traditional bi-anisotropic metamaterials, where the disruption of inversion symmetry by spatial arrangements is necessary. Conditions for realizing nonzero bi-anisotropic coupling are discussed and verified through full-wave simulations. Our work will stimulate research in the field of temporal bi-anisotropic metamaterials, as well as the application of temporal modulations in manipulating photonic spin angular momentum.

Synchronization of optically self-assembled nanorotors.

Self-assembly of nanoparticles by means of interparticle optical forces provides a compelling approach toward contact-free organization and manipulation of nanoscale entities. However, exploration of the rotational degrees of freedom in this process has remained limited, primarily because of the predominant focus on spherical nanoparticles, for which individual particle orientation cannot be determined. Here, we show that gold nanorods, which self-assemble in water under the influence of circularly polarized light, exhibit synchronized rotational motion at kilohertz frequencies. The synchronization is caused by strong optical interactions and occurs despite the presence of thermal diffusion. Our findings elucidate the intricate dynamics arising from the transfer of photon spin angular momentum to optically bound matter and hold promise for advancing the emerging field of light-driven nanomachinery.

Conservation and non-conservation of photonic angular momentum in a gradient-index fiber

Photonic angular momentum (AM), including the orbital AM (OAM) and spin AM (SAM) of vector vortex beams (VVBs) and partially-coherent VVBs, is analyzed in gradient-index (GRIN) fiber transmission. Photonic spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) occur and the photonic SAM, OAM, and AM (the sum of SAM and OAM) of radially-polarized vortex beams (RVBs) and partially-coherent RVBs (PRVBs) on different planes in the GRIN fiber are simulated. The photonic AM is conserved or not conserved from the SOIs of the RVB and PRVB during GRIN fiber transmission. Simultaneously, the non-conservation characteristics of the photonic AM are regulated by coherence.

Monolithic Spiral Metalens for Ultrahigh‐Capacity and Single‐Shot Sorting of Full Angular Momentum State

AbstractSorting orbital angular momentum (OAM) and spin angular momentum (SAM) of photons is crucial for optical communications, optical storage, and quantum information processing, wherein complicated optical setups or bulky devices are conventionally utilized to determine the angular momentum via repetitive interference or diffractive projection measurements. Recently, advancements in compact and single‐shot OAM detection have been made via coordinate transformation metasurfaces. Nevertheless, most of these strategies require precise separation and alignment between multiple components and cannot simultaneously distinguish full angular momentum states. Besides, the single‐shot maximum identifiable OAM mode numbers are generally limited to 60 due to the tradeoff between the mode space and reduced‐cross‐talk mode interval. Here, this work puts forward and experimentally demonstrates a monolithic spiral metalens (SML) for ultrahigh‐capacity sorting full angular momentum states. The SML focus the incident vortex beam into multiple‐turn spiral ring rather than a circle ring on the focal plane according to its topological charge, with the mode order ranging from −250 to 250. Consequently, the maximum identifiable OAM mode number is up to 168 under a single‐shot measurement, which largely surpass the best results reported hitherto. The experimental results obtained in the telecom band underpin the design approach, which may find great potential in high‐capacity communication and storage applications.

Nested SU(2) symmetry of photonic orbital angular momentum

The polarization state is described by a quantum mechanical two-level system, which is known as special unitary group of degree 2 [SU(2)]. Polarization is attributed to an internal spin degree of freedom inherent to photons, while photons also possess an orbital degree of freedom. A fundamental understanding of the nature of spin and orbital angular momentum of photons is significant to utilize the degrees of freedom for various applications in optical communications, computations, sensing, and laser-patterning. Here, we show that the orbital angular momentum of coherent photons emitted from a laser diode can be incremented using a vortex lens, and the magnitude of orbital angular momentum increases with an increase in the topological charge inside the mode. The superposition state of the left and right vortices is described by the SU(2) state, similar to polarization; however, the radius of the corresponding Poincaré sphere depends on the topological charge. Consequently, we expect a nested SU(2) structure to describe various states with different magnitudes in orbital angular momentum. We have experimentally developed a simple system to realize an arbitrary SU(2) state of orbital angular momentum by controlling both amplitudes and phases of the left and right vortices using a spin degree of freedom, whose interplays were confirmed by expected far-field images of dipoles and quadruples.

Anomalous plasmon coupling and Fano resonance under structured light

Structured light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) opens up a new physical dimension for studying light–matter interactions. Despite this, the complex fields created by OAM beams still remain largely unexplored in terms of their effects on surface plasmons. This paper presents a revelation of anomalous plasmon excitations in single particles and plasmon couplings of neighboring nanorods under OAM beams, which are forbidden using non-OAM sources. The plasmon excitation of single nanoparticles is determined both by photon spin angular momentum (SAM) and OAM and influenced by the locations of the nanoparticles. Specifically, when SAM and OAM are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, a pure plasmon excitation along light propagation direction is achieved. Two plasmon dipoles show end-to-end antibonding coupling and side-by-side bounding coupling, which are the opposite of the typical couplings. Furthermore, we observe Fano resonance with a nanorod dimer: one aligned along light propagation direction acting as the bright mode and the other aligned along the global polarization direction of light acting as the dark mode, which is the opposite of the usual plasmonic Fano resonance. By taking advantage of the unique property of the OAM source, this investigation presents a novel way to control and study surface plasmons, and the research of plasmon behavior with OAM would open new avenues for controlling electromagnetic waves and enriching the spectroscopies with more degrees of freedom.

Spin and orbital angular momentum of coherent photons in a waveguide

Spin angular momentum of a photon corresponds to a polarisation degree of freedom of lights, and such that various polarisation properties are coming from macroscopic manifestation of quantum-mechanical properties of lights. An orbital degree of freedom of lights is also manipulated to form a vortex of lights with orbital angular momentum, which is also quantised. However, it is considered that spin and orbital angular momentum of a photon cannot be split from the total orbital angular momentum in a gauge-invariant way. Here, we revisit this issue for a coherent monochromatic ray from a laser source, propagating in a waveguide. We obtained the helical components of spin and orbital angular momentum by the correspondence with the classical Ponyting vector. By applying a standard quantum field theory using a coherent state, we obtained the gauge-independent expressions of spin and orbital angular momentum operators. During the derivations, it was essential to take a finite cross-sectional area into account, which leads the finite longitudinal component along the direction of the propagation, which allows the splitting. Therefore, the finite mode profile was responsible to justify the splitting, which was not possible as far as we were using plane-wave expansions in a standard theory of quantum-electrodynamics (QED). Our results suggest spin and orbital angular momentum are well-defined quantum-mechanical freedoms at least for coherent photons propagating in a waveguide and in a vacuum with a finite mode profile.

All-fiber spatial profile and polarization controller

The spin and orbital angular momentum of photons can perturb during propagation in few mode optical fiber, and hence, in the receiver, perturbations must be adjusted. For polarization adjustment, polarization controllers have been developed previously. In this paper, we show that in the presence of external effects such as tension and tortion, the entanglement between the different degrees of freedom of a photon does not change. A device for simultaneous adjustment of polarization and spatial distribution in few mode fiber is proposed. In addition to modification, this device can also be used to produce different modes in fiber.

Photonic Orbital Angular Momentum Dichroism on Three-Dimensional Chiral Oligomers

Chiral oligomers in optics are photonic metamaterials inspired by the concept of chiral centers in chemistry. In recent years, chiral oligomers have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their simple construction and unique chiroptical response. To date, research has predominantly focused on the photonic spin angular momentum (SAM)-dependent chiroptical response: circular dichroism (CD). However, for another photonic dimension parallel to the SAM, orbital angular momentum (OAM)-dominated chiroptical response of chiral oligomers still remains elusive. Here, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the individual three-dimensional (3D) chiral tetramers can exhibit a gigantic response to the photonic OAM with a maximum helical dichroism (HD) of ∼23%. Meanwhile, we also reveal the origin of the HD via simulation analysis of electric current distribution, reflected electric field, and the discrete OAM spectroscopy. Furthermore, by femtosecond direct laser writing, 3D oligomers with tailoring geometric parameters can be flexibly fabricated in one step for varying HD responses. Our research fills the gap of OAM-related chiroptical response of chiral oligomers, which has great implications for chiroptical spectroscopy and photonic angular momentum engineering.

Two-level atom dynamics induced by a spin-orbit coupled optical vortex: dressed states formulation

We consider here the interaction of a two-level atom with a tightly focused paraxial optical vortex beam in the dressed states formalism. The interaction is characterized by a term that couples the photon spin angular momentum (SAM) with its orbital angular momentum (OAM). This term affects all the physical quantities related to the dressed states, like their energies, populations, and relaxation rates among them. We also show that the Mollow triplet associated with the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a two-level atom acquires a chiral character. We give numerical examples based on experimentally accessible values of the various parameters, and we show that the chirality can give rise to observable modifications of the various physical quantities under consideration.

Dispersion‐Enabled Symmetry Switching of Photonic Angular‐Momentum Coupling

AbstractPhotonic spin‐orbit interactions describe the interactions between spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum of photons, which play essential roles in subwavelength optics. However, the influence of frequency dispersion on photonic angular‐momentum coupling is rarely studied. Here, by elaborately designing the contribution of the geometric phase and waveguide propagation phase, the dispersion‐enabled symmetry switching of photonic angular‐momentum coupling is experimentally demonstrated. This notion may induce many exotic phenomena and be found in enormous applications, such as the spin‐Hall effect, optical calculation, and wavelength division multiplexing systems. As a proof‐of‐concept demonstration, two metadevices, a multi‐channel vectorial vortex beam generator and a phase‐only hologram, are applied to experimentally display optical double convolution, which may offer additional degrees of freedom to accelerate computing and a miniaturization configuration for optical convolution without collimation operation. These results may provide a new opportunity for complex vector optical field manipulation and calculation, optical information coding, light‐matter interaction manipulation, and optical communication.

Robust Helical Dichroism on Microadditively Manufactured Copper Helices via Photonic Orbital Angular Momentum.

Three-dimensional chiral metallic metamaterials have already attracted extensive attention in the wide research fields of chiroptical responses. These artificial chiral micronanostructures, possessing strong chiroptical signals, show huge significance in next-generation photonic devices and chiroptical spectroscopy techniques. However, most of the existing chiral metallic metamaterials are designed for generating chiroptical signals dependent on photonic spin angular momentum (SAM). The chiral metallic metamaterials for generating strong chiroptical responses by photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM) remain unseen. In this work, we fabricate copper microhelices with opposite handedness by additively manufacturing and further examine their OAM-dominated chiroptical response: helical dichroism (HD). The chiral copper microhelices exhibit differential reflection to the opposite OAM states, resulting in a significant HD signal (∼50%). The origin of the HD can be theoretically explained by the difference in photocurrent distribution inside copper microhelices under opposite OAM states. Moreover, the additively manufactured copper microhelices possess an excellent microstructural stability under varying annealing temperatures for robust HD responses. Lower material cost and noble-metal-similar optical properties, accompanied with well thermal stability, render the copper microhelices promising metamaterials in advanced chiroptical spectroscopy and photonic OAM engineering.

Topological band structure via twisted photons in a degenerate cavity

Synthetic dimensions based on particles’ internal degrees of freedom, such as frequency, spatial modes and arrival time, have attracted significant attention. They offer ideal large-scale lattices to simulate nontrivial topological phenomena. Exploring more synthetic dimensions is one of the paths toward higher dimensional physics. In this work, we design and experimentally control the coupling among synthetic dimensions consisting of the intrinsic photonic orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum degrees of freedom in a degenerate optical resonant cavity, which generates a periodically driven spin-orbital coupling system. We directly characterize the system’s properties, including the density of states, energy band structures and topological windings, through the transmission intensity measurements. Our work demonstrates a mechanism for exploring the spatial modes of twisted photons as the synthetic dimension, which paves the way to design rich topological physics in a highly compact platform.

On-Chip Photon Angular Momentum Absolute Measurement Based on Angle Detection.

Photon angular momentum (AM) has been widely studied due to its unique properties. The accurate detection of photon AM is very important in its wide applications. Though various on-chip AM detectors based on surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been proposed, most of them can only realize relative measurement. For example, most photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) detectors measure the high order OAM via measuring the relative interval between the intensity spots of the SPPs excited by the target order OAM beam and the reference order (usually 0th order) OAM beam. In this paper, we propose a simple on-chip photon AM detector. It can realize absolute measurement of photon OAM via angle detection, whose measurement result does not depend on the measurement of any reference OAM beam. At the same time, it can also recognize photon spin angular momentum (SAM). The proposed detector provides a new way for absolute measurement of photon AM, which may have some potential applications in the field of integrated photonic device.

Photon spin angular momentum driven magnetization dynamics in ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayers

Thin-film magnetization controlled by optical helicity has been recently reported. Although circularly polarized light has spin angular momentum, helicity-dependent all-optical magnetization switching is mediated by the stochastic thermal process, such as magnetic circular dichroism, and the effect of photon spin angular momentum is considered to be a secondary role. Conversely, the inverse Faraday effect in ferromagnetic thin films and photon spin angular momentum injection into heavy metal thin films have been observed, which can induce torque on metallic thin-film magnets. In this study, we show photon spin angular momentum driven magnetization dynamics in bilayers of Co/(Pt, Au) thin films with various thicknesses. The heavy metal Pt, Au, and ferromagnetic Co layer thickness dependencies of photon spin angular momentum driven torques are discussed in terms of field-like torque owing to the inverse Faraday effect and spin-transfer torque caused by photon spin angular momentum injection into the heavy metal layer with details of optical and magnetic properties. This study provides a better understanding of photon spin angular momentum induced magnetization dynamics in metallic thin-film heterostructures for efficient photon-driven magnetization manipulation.

Tailoring Optical Vortical Dichroism with Stereometamaterials

AbstractChiroptical response, investigating the interaction between photonic angular momenta and chiral media, is widely applied in optics and material science. In photonic spin angular momentum (SAM) dimension, tailoring circular dichroism (CD) is realized by varying chiral metamaterials for compact circular polarizers and enantiomer sensing. However, in photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM) dimension, tailorable chiroptical property by artificial metamaterials at a fixed operating wavelength remains elusive. Here, it is proposed and demonstrated that twisted stereometamaterials can yield OAM‐dependent tailorable vortical dichroism (VD) ranging from −97% to +98%. Engineering the geometrical parameters and symmetry of the twisted stereometamaterials can flexibly control the spectral characteristics of VD measurements such as sign, magnitude, and position. The twisted stereometamaterials, managing the transmission behaviors of light with various OAM, holds great promise for developing miniaturized components in integrated photonics and chiroptical spectroscopy.

Engineering photonic angular momentum with structured light: a review

Structured light with inhomogeneous phase, amplitude, and polarization spatial distributions that represent an infinite-dimensional space of eigenstates for light as the ideal carrier can provide a structured combination of photonic spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM). Photonic spin angular momentum (SAM) interactions with matter have long been studied, whereas the photonic OAM has only recently been discovered, receiving attention in the past three decades. Although controlling polarization (i.e., SAM) alone can provide useful information about the media with which the light interacts, light fields carrying both OAM and SAM may provide additional information, permitting new sensing mechanisms and light–matter interactions. We summarize recent developments in controlling photonic angular momentum (AM) using complex structured optical fields. Arbitrarily oriented photonic SAM and OAM states may be generated through careful engineering of the spatial and temporal structures of optical fields. Moreover, we discuss potential applications of specifically engineered photonic AM states in optical tweezers, directional coupling, and optical information transmission and processing.

Intensity interference characteristics of fractional Laguerre–Gaussian optical vortex

The paper reports the intensity characteristics of fractional vortex beam, and controls the coupling between photon orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum by coherently manipulating Laguerre–Gaussian vortex beam with linearly polarized plane light and its conjugate beam. By comparing theory with experiment, fractional vortex beams with different topological charges are generated by using pure phase liquid crystal spatial light modulator, and their intensity characteristics and interference characteristics are observed. The results show that the radial notch size of the spot is related to the fractional part of the topological charge value, and the closer the fractional part of the topological charge value is to the half integer, the more obvious the radial notch is. With the increase of integer part of topological charge, the spot radius also increases. In addition, interference with linearly polarized plane light reveals that the number of branches is equal to the number of topological charges. Interfere with its conjugate beam, and judge the topological charge number of vortex beam by the relationship between petal number and topological charge number. The petal number of integer vortex beam is twice the topological charge number, and fractional order vortex beam destroys the ring structure of Laguerre–Gaussian beam.

Optomechanically induced Faraday and splitting effects in a double-cavity optomechanical system

We demonstrate the optomechanically induced Faraday and splitting effects caused by optical mode conversion in a double-cavity optomechanical system. In the scheme, the polarization states of propagating light fields can be arbitrarily tailored to achieve optical Faraday rotation successfully via optomechanical interaction. Meanwhile, the energy-level splitting of the degenerate optical modes leads to the separation of two orthogonal polarization optical modes and the manipulation of spin angular momentum of photons. Moreover, the polarized output component orthogonal to the control field can be manipulated by properly choosing the tunneling interaction between two optical cavities, which enables the complete polarization control of the probe field. Using the polarized control field and optical gain in the auxiliary cavity, we can effectively improve the efficiency of optical Faraday rotation. Finally, we study how to achieve different optical control for different polarization states, which provides an effective method for the implementation of optical isolators in cavity optomechanical systems. Our scheme may benefit future realization of flexible controllability for the vector properties and spin angular momentum of photons, and can promote potential applications in optical nonreciprocal transport, routers, isolators, and circulators.

Selectively steering photon spin angular momentum via electron-induced optical spin Hall effect.

The development of the optical spin Hall effect (OSHE) realizes the splitting of different spin components, contributing to the manipulation of photon spin angular momentum that acts as the information carrier for quantum technology. However, OSHE with optical excitation lacks active control of photon angular momentum at deep subwavelength scale because of the optical diffraction limit. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a selective manipulation of photon spin angular momentum at a deep subwavelength scale via electron-induced OSHE in Au nanoantennas. The inversion of the OSHE radiation pattern is observed by angle-resolved cathodoluminescence polarimetry with the electron impact position shifting within 80 nm in a single antenna unit. By this selective steering of photon spin, we propose an information encoding with robustness, privacy, and high level of integration at a deep subwavelength scale for the future quantum applications.