Enhanced and switchable spin Hall effect of light near the Brewster angle on reflection

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a significantly enhanced and switchable spin Hall effect of light near the Brewster angle, with experimental and theoretical analysis showing large spin-dependent splitting and controllable spin accumulation.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental observation of a switchable SHE of light near Brewster angle with unprecedented enhancement and controllability.

Findings

Spin-dependent splitting reaches 3200nm near Brewster angle

The amplifying factor varies significantly with incident angle

Switchable spin accumulation is achieved by adjusting incident angle

Abstract

We reveal an enhanced and switchable spin Hall effect (SHE) of light near Brewster angle on reflection both theoretically and experimentally. The obtained spin-dependent splitting reaches 3200nm near Brewster angle, 50 times larger than the previous reported values in refraction. We find that the amplifying factor in week measurement is not a constant which is significantly different from that in refraction. As an analogy of SHE in electronic system, a switchable spin accumulation in SHE of light is detected. We were able to switch the direction of the spin accumulations by slightly adjusting the incident angle.