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Longitudinal fields and transverse rotations

Nature Photonics volume 15, pages 72–74 (2021)Cite this article

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Electromagnetic fields in light waves are mainly transverse to propagation direction but actually also have longitudinal components, which may give rise to unexpected optical phenomena involving the angular momentum of light, such as transverse spin and optical torques.

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Fig. 1: Longitudinal and transverse components of optical fields, in free space and in anisotropic media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department “Ettore Pancini”, Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Napoli, Italy

    Filippo Cardano & Lorenzo Marrucci

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  1. Filippo Cardano
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  2. Lorenzo Marrucci
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Correspondence to Filippo Cardano or Lorenzo Marrucci.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cardano, F., Marrucci, L. Longitudinal fields and transverse rotations. Nat. Photonics 15, 72–74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-00756-w

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