Realizing optical persistent spin helix and stern-gerlach deflection in an anisotropic liquid crystal microcavity
Realizing optical persistent spin helix and stern-gerlach deflection in an anisotropic liquid crystal microcavity
Spin-orbit interactions which couple the spin of a particle with its momentum degrees of freedom lie at the center of spintronic applications. Of special interest in semiconductor physics are Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. When equal in strength, the Rashba and Dresselhaus fields result in SU(2) spin rotation symmetry and emergence of the persistent spin helix only investigated for charge carriers in semiconductor quantum wells. Recently, a synthetic Rashba-Dresselhaus Hamiltonian was shown to describe cavity photons confined in a microcavity filled with optically anisotropic liquid crystal. In this Letter, we present a purely optical realization of two types of spin patterns corresponding to the persistent spin helix and the Stern-Gerlach experiment in such a cavity. We show how the symmetry of the Hamiltonian results in spatial oscillations of the spin orientation of photons traveling in the plane of the cavity.
Liquid crystal devices, Microcavity, Photonic spin-orbit coupling
190401
Król, Mateusz
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Rechcińska, Katarzyna
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Sigurdsson, Helgi
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Oliwa, Przemysław
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Mazur, Rafał
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Morawiak, Przemysław
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Piecek, Wiktor
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Kula, Przemysław
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Lagoudakis, Pavlos G.
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Matuszewski, Michał
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Bardyszewski, Witold
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Piȩtka, Barbara
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Szczytko, Jacek
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1 November 2021
Król, Mateusz
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Rechcińska, Katarzyna
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Sigurdsson, Helgi
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Oliwa, Przemysław
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Mazur, Rafał
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Morawiak, Przemysław
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Piecek, Wiktor
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Kula, Przemysław
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Lagoudakis, Pavlos G.
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Matuszewski, Michał
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Bardyszewski, Witold
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Piȩtka, Barbara
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Szczytko, Jacek
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Król, Mateusz, Rechcińska, Katarzyna, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Oliwa, Przemysław, Mazur, Rafał, Morawiak, Przemysław, Piecek, Wiktor, Kula, Przemysław, Lagoudakis, Pavlos G., Matuszewski, Michał, Bardyszewski, Witold, Piȩtka, Barbara and Szczytko, Jacek
(2021)
Realizing optical persistent spin helix and stern-gerlach deflection in an anisotropic liquid crystal microcavity.
Physical Review Letters, 127 (19), .
(doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.190401).
Abstract
Spin-orbit interactions which couple the spin of a particle with its momentum degrees of freedom lie at the center of spintronic applications. Of special interest in semiconductor physics are Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. When equal in strength, the Rashba and Dresselhaus fields result in SU(2) spin rotation symmetry and emergence of the persistent spin helix only investigated for charge carriers in semiconductor quantum wells. Recently, a synthetic Rashba-Dresselhaus Hamiltonian was shown to describe cavity photons confined in a microcavity filled with optically anisotropic liquid crystal. In this Letter, we present a purely optical realization of two types of spin patterns corresponding to the persistent spin helix and the Stern-Gerlach experiment in such a cavity. We show how the symmetry of the Hamiltonian results in spatial oscillations of the spin orientation of photons traveling in the plane of the cavity.
Text
PhysRevLett.127.190401
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 24 August 2021
Published date: 1 November 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Science Centre Grants No. 2019/35/B/ST3/04147 No. 2019/33/B/ST5/02658, No. 2018/31/N/ST3/03046, and No. 2017/27/B/ST3/00271. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme FET Open under grant agreement No. 964770 (TopoLight). H. S. and P. G. L. acknowledge the support of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant No. EP/M025330/1 on Hybrid Polaritonics), the support of the RFBR Projects No. 20-52-12026 (jointly with DFG) and No. 20-02-00919, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, through a FET Open research and innovation action under the Grant Agreement No. 899141 (PoLLoC). H. S. acknowledges the Icelandic Research Fund, Grant No. 217631-051.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 authors.
Keywords:
Liquid crystal devices, Microcavity, Photonic spin-orbit coupling
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 453675
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/453675
ISSN: 0031-9007
PURE UUID: e29c91c9-e35d-4cf0-bba7-4d3e692b9ee6
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Date deposited: 20 Jan 2022 17:45
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 12:53
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Contributors
Author:
Mateusz Król
Author:
Katarzyna Rechcińska
Author:
Przemysław Oliwa
Author:
Rafał Mazur
Author:
Przemysław Morawiak
Author:
Wiktor Piecek
Author:
Przemysław Kula
Author:
Pavlos G. Lagoudakis
Author:
Michał Matuszewski
Author:
Witold Bardyszewski
Author:
Barbara Piȩtka
Author:
Jacek Szczytko
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