2008/10/12 by Konstantin Y. Bliokh, K. Y. Bliokh, Avi Niv +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.other #hep-th #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.229
published as Nature Photon. 2, 748-753 (2008) · 18 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Nature Photonics
arxiv created 2008/10/12 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The semiclassical evolution of spinning particles has recently been re-examined in condensed matter physics, high energy physics, and optics, resulting in the prediction of the intrinsic spin Hall effect associated with the Berry phase. A fundamental nature of this effect is related to the spin-orbit interaction and topological monopoles. Here we report a unified theory and a direct observation of two mutual phenomena: a spin-dependent deflection (the spin Hall effect) of photons and the precession of the Stokes vector along the coiled ray trajectory of classical geometrical optics. Our measurements are in perfect agreement with theoretical predictions, thereby verifying the dynamical action of the topological Berry-phase monopole in the evolution of light. These results may have promising applications in nano-optics and can be immediately extrapolated to the evolution of massless particles in a variety of physical systems.