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The photonic wheel - demonstration of a state of light with purely transverse angular momentum

MPS-Authors
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Banzer,  P.
Interference Microscopy and Nanooptics, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Neugebauer,  M.
Interference Microscopy and Nanooptics, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Aiello,  A.
Optical Quantum Information Theory, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Marquardt,  C.
Quantum Information Processing, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Lindlein,  N.
Optical Design and Microoptics, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Bauer,  T.
Interference Microscopy and Nanooptics, Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Leuchs,  G.
Leuchs Division, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Banzer, P., Neugebauer, M., Aiello, A., Marquardt, C., Lindlein, N., Bauer, T., et al. (2013). The photonic wheel - demonstration of a state of light with purely transverse angular momentum. JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN OPTICAL SOCIETY-RAPID PUBLICATIONS, 8: 13032. doi:10.2971/jeos.2013.13032.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-67E3-B
Abstract
In classical mechanics, a system may possess angular momentum which can be either transverse (e.g. in a spinning wheel) or longitudinal (e.g. for a spiraling seed falling from a tree) with respect to the direction of motion. However, for light, a typical massless wave system, the situation is less versatile. Photons are well-known to exhibit intrinsic angular momentum which is longitudinal only: the spin angular momentum defining the polarization and the orbital angular momentum associated with a spiraling phase front. Here we show that it is possible to generate a novel state of the light field that contains purely transverse angular momentum, the analogue of a spinning mechanical wheel. We realize this state by tight focusing of a polarization tailored light beam and measure it using an optical nano-probing technique. Such a novel state of the light field can find applications in optical tweezers and spanners where it allows for additional rotational degree of freedom not achievable in single-beam configurations so far.