各向异性介质内光波偏振及光子自旋密度演化

Polarization and photon spin density of light waves in an anisotropic medium

对光波偏振和自旋密度之间的关系作了研究,并以四分之一波片为例计算分析了偏振光在各向异性介质内传播时的自旋密度演化特征.不同于在各向同性介质内的光波,在各向异性介质内的光波的偏振态和光子螺旋度均会演化,甚至翻转.此类偏振和自旋演化效应在量子信息领域亦有应用意义.

The behavior of polarization and spin density of polarized light waves propagating inside an anisotropic medium is considered.Differing from the light in an isotropic medium,the polarization states and helicity eigenstates of the light waves will evolve in the anisotropic medium.The evolutional spin densities of both the circularly and the elliptically polarized light waves have been calculated,and the effects relevant to the polarization state evolution have been analyzed.An optical analog of Einstein-de Haas experimental scenario has been suggested in order to test the angular momentum transfer between light waves and anisotropic media.Such evolutional states of light would find potential applications in the field of quantum information.