Tightly focused optical field with controllable photonic spin orientation

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Quantum Information Science

Background:

• Photon spin angular momentum is crucial for advanced optical applications.
• Controlling photonic spin within tightly focused light beams is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for controllable photonic spin orientation in a diffraction-limited focal spot.
• To enable precise spin-controlled manipulation of light for future applications.

Main Methods:

• Analytically determined required pupil fields by reversing dipole radiation patterns.
• Experimentally generated pupil fields using a vectorial optical field generator.
• Quantitatively evaluated photonic spin orientations using spin densities and Richard-Wolf diffraction theory.

Main Results:

• Successfully achieved controllable photonic spin orientation within a focused optical spot.
• Demonstrated the validity and capability of the proposed technique through quantitative evaluation.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides a robust and scalable toolbox for spin-controlled light manipulation.
• This technique opens new avenues for high-bandwidth applications leveraging photonic spin.