Nonreciprocal Transverse Photonic Spin and Magnetization-Induced Electromagnetic Spin-Orbit Coupling

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 39972
• Main Authors: Levy, Miguel, Karki, Dolendra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.01.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/624/400/1101; 639/766/1130/2799; Humanities and Social Sciences; Light; Magnetic fields; Media; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Optics; Propagation; Science
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep39972

We present a formulation of electromagnetic spin-orbit coupling in magneto-optic media, and propose an alternative source of spin-orbit coupling to non-paraxial optics vortices. Our treatment puts forth a formulation of nonreciprocal transverse-spin angular-momentum-density shifts for evanescent waves in magneto-optic waveguide media. It shows that magnetization-induced electromagnetic spin-orbit coupling is possible, and that it leads to unequal spin to orbital angular momentum conversion in magneto-optic media evanescent waves in opposite propagation-directions. Generation of free-space helicoidal beams based on this conversion is shown to be spin-helicity- and magnetization-dependent. We show that transverse-spin to orbital angular momentum coupling into magneto-optic waveguide media engenders spin-helicity-dependent unidirectional propagation. This unidirectional effect produces different orbital angular momenta in opposite directions upon excitation-spin-helicity reversals.