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In general, a spin-polarized light beam cannot couple its spin angular momentum (SAM) with intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM) without spin reversal. Here we find that nonlinear media can give the spin-polarized photon an IOAM, as they travel in the media due to the nonlinear susceptibility along the transmission direction, which does not require spin reversal. To characterize this SAM-to-IOAM conversion process, we establish an evolution ray equation for photons carrying IOAM by reference to the Schrödinger equation. We further reveal the inherent physics of such a phenomenon from a full-wave perspective and find that the vortex generation originates from the nonlinear-induced geometric phase.

We investigate the impact of Raman scattering on pure quartic solitons (PQSs) in an optical fiber with quartic dispersion. An analytical expression of the Raman-induced frequency shift (RIFS) of a PQS is obtained by using the variational approach with the Gaussian function ansatz. We find the RIFS of a PQS is inversely proportional to the sixth power of pulse width, when the fiber is short enough. The RIFS of a PQS is more sensitive to the pulse width, compared with that of a conventional soliton which is inversely proportional to the fourth power of pulse width. The theoretical predictions show good agreement with numerical results. In addition, we also discuss the RIFS of the other three typical pulses with the same peak power and pulse width as the PQS. These results provide a thorough understanding of the role of higher-order nonlinear effects on the propagation dynamics of PQSs.

We report direct measurements of the Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase in mode transformations on a hybrid-order Poincare sphere. This geometric phase arises when the vector vortex states undergo a cyclic transformation over a closed circuit on a hybrid-order Poincare sphere. The measured PB phase is proportional to the solid angle of the closed circuit, as well as to the variation of the total angular momenta between north and south poles. More importantly, a zero PB phase has been demonstrated, despite the vector vortex states taken through a closed circuit on the hybrid-order Poincare sphere. This interesting phenomenon can be explained as being due to the zero Berry curvature.

The photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) manifests itself as the transverse and in-plane spin-dependent shifts of a light beam. Normally, the spin shifts are tiny due to the weak spin-orbit coupling. Therefore, it is very important and interesting to explore some effective methods for enhancing this phenomenon. In this Letter, we theoretically propose and experimentally verify a simple method for obtaining large and asymmetric in-plane spin angular shifts when an arbitrary linearly polarized beam reflects near the critical angle (for total internal reflection). The universal expressions of spatial and angular shifts are deduced. Remarkably, by modulating the incident and polarization angles, the left- and right-handed circularly polarized components can be distinguished directly. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

We propose a simple method for the precise identification of graphene layers at the air-prism interface via a pseudo-Brewster angle, where the horizontally polarized reflection is close to zero. We find that the pseudo-Brewster angle is sensitive to the variation of graphene layers where the pseudo-Brewster angle is approximately linearly increased about 0.5 deg as the layer numbers increased. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the pseudo-Brewster angle can be greatly enhanced and reaches 0.04 deg by eliminating the influence of the cross-polarization effect. Our scheme can provide a simple and effective method to identify the layer numbers of graphene.

Observation of photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) in dielectric metasurfaces whose local optical axes are spatially rotated is presented. The photonic SHE manifests itself as a spin-dependent splitting in momentum space due to the space-variant Pancharatnam-Berry phase. We show that no spin-dependent splitting occurs when keeping the rotational symmetry of local optical axes. However, the splitting can be observed when the rotational symmetry is broken. The spin-dependent splitting in position space can be observed in the far field due to the high transmission efficiency of dielectric metasurfaces. Moreover, it can be enhanced by increasing the rotation rate of local optical axes in the metasurfaces.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel interferometric approach to generate arbitrary cylindrical vector beams on the higher order Poincare sphere. Our scheme is implemented by collinear superposition of two orthogonal circular polarizations with opposite topological charges. By modifying the amplitude and phase factors of the two beams, respectively, any desired vector beams on the higher order Poincare sphere with high tunability can be acquired. Our research provides a convenient way to evolve the polarization states in any path on the high order Poincare sphere., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures