Transverse spin angular momentum of tightly focused full Poincaré beams

W. Zhu, V. Shvedov, W. She, W. Krolikowski

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    50 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We show theoretically that by tightly focusing a full Poincaré beam one can create states of light whose average spin angular momentum (SAM) is purely transverse. Moreover, the transverse SAM is significantly increased if a narrow annular aperture is inserted into the Poincaré beam. In this case the state with transverse SAM can exist over an extremely long distance along the optical axis. To avoid diffraction on the aperture and increase the light conversion efficiency we employ the phenomenon of conical diffraction in biaxial crystals to convert a Gaussian beam into a ring-shaped beam, with a high ratio of the ring radius to its width.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)34029-34041
    Number of pages13
    JournalOptics Express
    Volume23
    Issue number26
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 28 Dec 2015

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