Optical Helicity and Chirality: Conservation and Sources

We consider the helicity and chirality of the free electromagnetic field, and advocate the former as a means of characterising the interaction of chiral light with matter. This is in view of the intuitive quantum form of the helicity density operator, and of the dual symmetry transformation generate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 9; no. 5; p. 828
Main Authors Crimin, Frances, Mackinnon, Neel, Götte, Jörg, Barnett, Stephen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 2019
Subjects
bi-isotropic media
Chirality
Conservation
dual symmetry
Electromagnetic fields
Electromagnetism
Flow velocity
Handedness
Helicity
Light
light–matter interactions
orbital angular momentum
Photonics
Physics
United States > US
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Summary:We consider the helicity and chirality of the free electromagnetic field, and advocate the former as a means of characterising the interaction of chiral light with matter. This is in view of the intuitive quantum form of the helicity density operator, and of the dual symmetry transformation generated by its conservation. We go on to review the form of the helicity density and its associated continuity equation in free space, in the presence of local currents and charges, and upon interaction with bulk media, leading to characterisation of both microscopic and macroscopic sources of helicity.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app9050828