Volume 97, Number 19, 193903 (November 2006).
Photospin-Orbit Coupling in Photonic Structures
Fredrik Jonsson1 and Christos Flytzanis2
1EPSRC Nanophotonics Portfolio Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.2Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain, Ecole Normale Superieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231-Paris Cedex 05, France.
Abstract
We show that inclusion of non-locality in the constitutive relations in photonic structures has important repercussions in their eigenmode configuration and distribution. In the case of optical activity, the primary manifestation of non-locality, these features are traced to a photospin-orbit interaction analogous to the electron spin-orbit interaction in asymmetric semiconducting compounds; its impact can be assimilated to that of a magnetic field whose magnitude and direction follows that of the photon quasi-momentum, with implications in photospin transport and photo-spintronics.
Full text: PDF [250 kB] | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.193903
This article was featured in the November 20th (2006) issue of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, published by the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.