Kelvin's chirality of optical beams

Nechayev S, Eismann J, Alaee R, Karimi E, Boyd RW, Banzer P (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Physical Review A American Physical Society

Book Volume: 103

Article Number: L031501

Journal Issue: 3

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.103.L031501

Abstract

Geometrical chirality is a property of objects that describes a three-dimensional mirror-symmetry violation and therefore it requires a nonvanishing spatial extent. In contrary, optical chirality describes only the local handedness of electromagnetic fields and neglects the spatial geometrical structure of optical beams. In this Letter we put forward the physical significance of geometrical chirality of spatial structure of optical beams, which we term Kelvin's chirality. Furthermore, we report on an experiment revealing the coupling of Kelvin's chirality to optical chirality upon transmission of a focused beam through a planar medium. Our work emphasizes the importance of Kelvin's chirality in all light-matter interaction experiments involving structured light beams with spatially inhomogeneous phase and polarization distributions.

Authors with CRIS profile

Jörg Eismann Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Optik) Peter Banzer Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Optik)

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts (MPL) / Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light DE Germany (DE) University of Ottawa CA Canada (CA)

How to cite

APA:

Nechayev, S., Eismann, J., Alaee, R., Karimi, E., Boyd, R.W., & Banzer, P. (2021). Kelvin's chirality of optical beams. Physical Review A, 103(3). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.103.L031501

MLA:

Nechayev, Sergey, et al. "Kelvin's chirality of optical beams." Physical Review A 103.3 (2021).

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