光的量子自旋霍尔效应
Quantum spin Hall effect of light
摘要：
麦克斯韦方程组，150年前制定，最终描述了光的性质，从经典电磁学到量子和相对论方面。后者导致了与光子自旋1无质量性质相关的显著几何和拓扑现象。通过分析麦克斯韦波的基本自旋性质，我们证明了自由空间光具有内禀量子自旋霍尔效应，即，具有强自旋动量锁定的表面模式。这些模式是倏逝波，例如，真空-金属界面的表面等离子体激元。我们的研究结果照亮了不寻常的横向自旋在倏逝波和解释最近的实验表明，横向自旋方向锁定的激发表面光学模式。这加深了我们对麦克斯韦理论的理解，揭示了与电子的拓扑绝缘体的类比，并提供了强大的自旋方向光学接口的应用。
英文摘要：
Maxwell's equations, formulated 150 years ago, ultimately describe properties of light, from classical electromagnetism to quantum and relativistic aspects. The latter ones result in remarkable geometric and topological phenomena related to the spin-1 massless nature of photons. By analyzing fundamental spin properties of Maxwell waves, we show that free-space light exhibits an intrinsic quantum spin Hall effect, i.e., surface modes with strong spin-momentum locking. These modes are evanescent waves that form, e.g., surface plasmon-polaritons at vacuum-metal interfaces. Our findings illuminate the unusual transverse spin in evanescent waves and explain recent experiments demonstrating the transverse spin-direction locking in the excitation of surface optical modes. This deepens our understanding of Maxwell's theory, reveals analogies with topological insulators for electrons, and offers applications for robust spin-directional optical interfaces.
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