Dynamic Consequences of Optical Spin-Orbit Interaction

Abstract

When circularly polarized wave scatters off a sphere, the scattered field forms a vortex with spiraling energy flow. This is due to the transformation of spin angular momentum into orbital one. Here we demonstrate that during this scattering an anomalous force can be induced that acts in a direction perpendicular to the propagation of incident wave. The appearance of this lateral force is made possible by the presence of an interface in the vicinity of scattering object. Besides radiation pressure and tractor-beam pulling forces, this lateral force is another type of non-conservative force that can be produced with unstructured light beams.