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Optical Momentum, Spin, and Angular Momentum in Dispersive Media

We examine the momentum, spin, and orbital angular momentum of structured monochromatic optical fields in dispersive inhomogeneous isotropic media. There are two bifurcations in this general problem: the Abraham-Minkowski dilemma and the kinetic (Poynting-like) versus canonical (spin-orbital) pictur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2017-08, Vol.119 (7), p.073901-073901, Article 073901
Main Authors: Bliokh, Konstantin Y, Bekshaev, Aleksandr Y, Nori, Franco
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We examine the momentum, spin, and orbital angular momentum of structured monochromatic optical fields in dispersive inhomogeneous isotropic media. There are two bifurcations in this general problem: the Abraham-Minkowski dilemma and the kinetic (Poynting-like) versus canonical (spin-orbital) pictures. We show that the kinetic Abraham momentum describes the energy flux and group velocity of the wave in the medium. At the same time, we introduce novel canonical Minkowski-type momentum, spin, and orbital angular momentum densities of the field. These quantities exhibit fairly natural forms, analogous to the Brillouin energy density, as well as multiple advantages as compared with previously considered formalisms. As an example, we apply this general theory to inhomogeneous surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves at a metal-vacuum interface and show that SPPs carry a "supermomentum," proportional to the wave vector k_{p}>ω/c, and a transverse spin, which can change its sign depending on the frequency ω.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.073901