Spin Hall effect of light in metallic reflection

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental observation of the Spin Hall Effect of Light at an air-metal interface, revealing polarization-dependent shifts in reflected light beams.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of SHEL on a metallic surface, demonstrating polarization-dependent spatial and angular shifts in reflected light.

Findings

Maximum shifts at -45/45 degrees polarization

Zero shifts for pure s- and p-polarization

Circular polarization yields only spatial shift

Abstract

We report the first measurement of the Spin Hall Effect of Light (SHEL) on an air-metal interface. The SHEL is a polarization-dependent out-of-plane shift on the reflected beam. For the case of metallic reflection with a linearly polarized incident light, both the spatial and angular variants of the shift are observed and are maximum for -45/45 deg polarization, but zero for pure s- and p-polarization. For an incoming beam with circular polarization states however, only the spatial out-of-plane shift is present.