Observation of Self-Induced Optical Vortex Precession

Mohamed El Ketara (1) , Etienne Brasselet (1)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine

We report on the observation of self-induced precession of an optical vortex as a result of the nonlinear interaction between light and liquid crystals. The phenomenon corresponds to an instability for the spin-orbit interaction of light that manifests as a spontaneous axial symmetry breaking, which leads to the orbital motion of the optical vortex around the beam propagation. A nonlinear spin Hall effect of light is experimentally identified, thereby unveiling an original demonstration of spin to extrinsic orbital light angular momentum self-conversion.

Mots clés: Mechanical effects of light on material media; microstructures and particles; Optical angular momentum and its quantum aspects; Orientational order of liquid crystals; electric and magnetic field effects on order

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Mohamed El Ketara, Etienne Brasselet. Observation of Self-Induced Optical Vortex Precession. Physical Review Letters, 2013, 110 (23), pp.233603 (1-5). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.233603⟩. ⟨hal-00838137⟩