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Dynamic consequences of optical spin–orbit interaction

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 809–812 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Field symmetries and conservation laws are closely associated through Noether's theorem. Light field inhomogeneities lead to changes in linear and angular momenta and, consequently, to radiation pressure1,2, spin or rotation of objects3,4. Here we discuss a new type of mechanical action originating in the exchange between spin and orbital angular momenta. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that, when mirror and central symmetries of scattering are broken, a force appears acting perpendicularly to the direction of propagation. This new force completes the set of non-conservative forces (radiation pressure and tractor beams) that can be generated with unstructured light beams.

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Figure 1: Scattering of circularly polarized light off a spherical particle located at an interface between two dielectric media.
Figure 2: Lateral force on Mie-size particles.
Figure 3: Experimental data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by NSF grant no. 1159530.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando, 32816, Florida, USA

    Sergey Sukhov, Veerachart Kajorndejnukul, Roxana Rezvani Naraghi & Aristide Dogariu

  2. Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando, 32816, Florida, USA

    Roxana Rezvani Naraghi

Authors
  1. Sergey Sukhov
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  2. Veerachart Kajorndejnukul
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  3. Roxana Rezvani Naraghi
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  4. Aristide Dogariu
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Contributions

S.S. and A.D. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. S.S. performed theoretical analysis. V.K. and R.R.N. performed the experiments. S.S. and V.K. contributed materials/analysis tools. S.S., V.K., R.R.N. and A.D. analysed the data. S.S. and A.D. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Aristide Dogariu.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Sukhov, S., Kajorndejnukul, V., Naraghi, R. et al. Dynamic consequences of optical spin–orbit interaction. Nature Photon 9, 809–812 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.200

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