2010/01/31 by O. G. Rodriguez-Herrera, Oscar G. Rodríguez-Herrera, D. Lara +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Digital Holography and Microscopy #Near-Field Optical Microscopy #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.253601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 253601 (2010) · 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.
arxiv created 2010/05/08 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/22 · arxiv updated 2010/12/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We show, both theoretically and experimentally, that high-numerical-aperture (NA) optical microscopy is accompanied by strong spin-orbit interaction of light, which translates fine information about the specimen to the polarization degrees of freedom of light. An 80 nm gold nanoparticle scattering the light in the focus of a high-NA objective generates angular momentum conversion, which is seen as a nonuniform polarization distribution at the exit pupil. We demonstrate remarkable sensitivity of the effect to the position of the nanoparticle: Its subwavelength displacement produces the giant spin-Hall effect, i.e., macroseparation of spins in the outgoing light. This brings forth a far-field optical nanoprobing technique based on the spin-orbit interaction of light.