Angular Momentum of Circularly Polarised Light

Angular momentum of circularly polarized light in dielectric media.

A circularly polarized plane-wave is known to have no angular momentum when examined through Maxwell's equations. This, however, contradicts the experimentally observed facts, where finite segments of plane waves are known to be capable of imparting angular momentum to birefringent platelets. Using a superposition of four plane-waves propagating at slightly different angles to a common directio...

Polarisation Vision: Beetles See Circularly Polarised Light

It has long been known that the iridescent cuticle of many scarab beetles reflects circularly polarised light. It now turns out that scarabs can also see this light, potentially using it as a covert visual signal.

Biological Optics: Circularly Polarised Crustaceans

A novel visual capability, the detection of circularly polarised light, has been demonstrated in a mantis shrimp, a colourful crustacean from tropical reefs.

Chirality and the angular momentum of light

Chirality is exhibited by objects that cannot be rotated into their mirror images. It is far from obvious that this has anything to do with the angular momentum of light, which owes its existence to rotational symmetries. There is nevertheless a subtle connection between chirality and the angular momentum of light. We demonstrate this connection and, in particular, its significance in the conte...

Light-particle Emission at High Angular Momentum