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Unveiling pseudospin and angular momentum in photonic graphene

Author

Listed:
  • Daohong Song

    (MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University)

  • Vassilis Paltoglou

    (University of Crete)

  • Sheng Liu

    (MOE Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Optical Information Technology, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University
    San Francisco State University)

  • Yi Zhu

    (Zhou Pei-Yuan Center for Applied Mathematics, Tsinghua University)

  • Daniel Gallardo

    (San Francisco State University)

  • Liqin Tang

    (MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University)

  • Jingjun Xu

    (MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University)

  • Mark Ablowitz

    (University of Colorado, 526 UCB)

  • Nikolaos K. Efremidis

    (University of Crete)

  • Zhigang Chen

    (MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University
    San Francisco State University)

Abstract

Pseudospin, an additional degree of freedom inherent in graphene, plays a key role in understanding many fundamental phenomena such as the anomalous quantum Hall effect, electron chirality and Klein paradox. Unlike the electron spin, the pseudospin was traditionally considered as an unmeasurable quantity, immune to Stern-Gerlach-type experiments. Recently, however, it has been suggested that graphene pseudospin is a real angular momentum that might manifest itself as an observable quantity, but so far direct tests of such a momentum remained unfruitful. Here, by selective excitation of two sublattices of an artificial photonic graphene, we demonstrate pseudospin-mediated vortex generation and topological charge flipping in otherwise uniform optical beams with Bloch momentum traversing through the Dirac points. Corroborated by numerical solutions of the linear massless Dirac-Weyl equation, we show that pseudospin can turn into orbital angular momentum completely, thus upholding the belief that pseudospin is not merely for theoretical elegance but rather physically measurable.

Suggested Citation

  • Daohong Song & Vassilis Paltoglou & Sheng Liu & Yi Zhu & Daniel Gallardo & Liqin Tang & Jingjun Xu & Mark Ablowitz & Nikolaos K. Efremidis & Zhigang Chen, 2015. "Unveiling pseudospin and angular momentum in photonic graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-7, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7272
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7272
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    Cited by:

    1. Sihong Lei & Shiqi Xia & Daohong Song & Jingjun Xu & Hrvoje Buljan & Zhigang Chen, 2024. "Optical vortex ladder via Sisyphus pumping of Pseudospin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Ren, Boquan & Kartashov, Yaroslav V. & Wang, Hongguang & Li, Yongdong & Zhang, Yiqi, 2023. "Floquet topological insulators with hybrid edges," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Wu, Zhenkun & Yang, Kaibo & Ren, Xijun & Li, Peng & Wen, Feng & Gu, Yuzong & Guo, Lijun, 2022. "Conical diffraction modulation in fractional dimensions with a PT-symmetric potential," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Wu, Zhenkun & Yang, Kaibo & Zhang, Yagang & Ren, Xijun & Wen, Feng & Gu, Yuzong & Guo, Lijun, 2022. "Nonlinear conical diffraction in fractional dimensions with a PT-symmetric optical lattice," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

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