Tunable optical spin Hall effect in a liquid crystal microcavity

Molecular Polaritons for Chemistry, Photonics and Quantum Technologies

Molecular polaritons are quasiparticles resulting from the hybridization between molecular and photonic modes. These composite entities, bearing characteristics inherited from both constituents, exhibit modified energy levels and wave functions, thereby capturing the attention of chemists in the past decade. The potential to modify chemical reactions has spurred many investigations, alongside efforts to enhance and manipulate optical responses for photonic and quantum applications. This Review centers on the experimental advances in this burgeoning field. Commencing with an introduction of the fundamentals, including theoretical foundations and various cavity architectures, we discuss outcomes of polariton-modified chemical reactions. Furthermore, we navigate through the ongoing debates and uncertainties surrounding the underpinning mechanism of this innovative method of controlling chemistry. Emphasis is placed on gaining a comprehensive understanding of the energy dynamics of molecular polaritons, in particular, vibrational molecular polaritons─a pivotal facet in steering chemical reactions. Additionally, we discuss the unique capability of coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy to dissect polariton and dark mode dynamics, offering insights into the critical components within the cavity that alter chemical reactions. We further expand to the potential utility of molecular polaritons in quantum applications as well as precise manipulation of molecular and photonic polarizations, notably in the context of chiral phenomena. This discussion aspires to ignite deeper curiosity and engagement in revealing the physics underpinning polariton-modified molecular properties, and a broad fascination with harnessing photonic environments to control chemistry.

Actively manipulating the photonic spin Hall effect by bias-assisted light-induced carrier injection

In this work, we present a simple and active mechanism for manipulating the photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) of an InP-based layered structure by taking advantage of the alterable refractive index of InP via bias-assisted carrier injection. The photonic SHE of transmitted light for both H- and V-polarized beams is quite sensitive to the intensity of the bias-assisted light. The spin shift can reach its giant value under the optimal intensity of bias light, which corresponds to the proper refractive index of InP induced by the photon-induced carrier injection. Except for the modulation of the bias light intensity, there is another method to manipulate the photonic SHE by adjusting the wavelength of bias light. We found that this method of tuning the bias light wavelength is more effective for H-polarized light than for the V-polarized light.

Manipulating polariton condensates by Rashba-Dresselhaus coupling at room temperature

Spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in the spin Hall effect and topological insulators. Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit coupling show remarkable quantum phase transition. In this work we control an exciton polariton condensate – a macroscopically coherent state of hybrid light and matter excitations – by virtue of the Rashba-Dresselhaus (RD) spin-orbit coupling. This is achieved in a liquid-crystal filled microcavity where CsPbBr₃ perovskite microplates act as the gain material at room temperature. Specifically, we realize an artificial gauge field acting on the CsPbBr₃ exciton polariton condensate, splitting the condensate fractions with opposite spins in both momentum and real space. Besides the ground states, higher-order discrete polariton modes can also be split by the RD effect. Our work paves the way to manipulate exciton polariton condensates with a synthetic gauge field based on the RD spin-orbit coupling at room temperature.

Engineered spin-orbit coupling can induce novel quantum phases in a Bose-Einstein condensate, however such demonstrations have been limited to cold atom systems. Here the authors realize a exciton-polarion condensate with tunable spin-orbit coupling in a liquid crystal microcavity at room temperature.

Realizing Optical Persistent Spin Helix and Stern-Gerlach Deflection in an Anisotropic Liquid Crystal Microcavity

Spin-orbit interactions which couple the spin of a particle with its momentum degrees of freedom lie at the center of spintronic applications. Of special interest in semiconductor physics are Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. When equal in strength, the Rashba and Dresselhaus fields result in SU(2) spin rotation symmetry and emergence of the persistent spin helix only investigated for charge carriers in semiconductor quantum wells. Recently, a synthetic Rashba-Dresselhaus Hamiltonian was shown to describe cavity photons confined in a microcavity filled with optically anisotropic liquid crystal. In this Letter, we present a purely optical realization of two types of spin patterns corresponding to the persistent spin helix and the Stern-Gerlach experiment in such a cavity. We show how the symmetry of the Hamiltonian results in spatial oscillations of the spin orientation of photons traveling in the plane of the cavity.

Enhanced spin Hall effect due to the redshift gaps of photonic hypercrystals

We proposed a method for enhancing the spin Hall effect (SHE) of light in the photonic hypercrystal (PHC). PHC is a periodic structure that combines the properties of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) and conventional one-dimensional-photonic crystals (1DPCs). The proposed PHC is composed of Ti₃O₅ and HMMs, which alternatively consist of Ag and Ti₃O₅. The giant ratio of reflection coefficients of TE/TM polarizations can be realized due to the redshift gaps of the PHCs, where the band edge of TE polarization shifts toward short wavelengths but the band edge of TM polarization moves toward long wavelengths. It will eventually lead to the enhancement of SHE in this PHC with the redshift gaps. The maximum transverse shift can be close to 15 µm with the optimum thickness and incident angle. The enhancing SHE provides us an opportunity to expand the corresponding applications in the field of optics.

Selectively steering photon spin angular momentum via electron-induced optical spin Hall effect

The development of the optical spin Hall effect (OSHE) realizes the splitting of different spin components, contributing to the manipulation of photon spin angular momentum that acts as the information carrier for quantum technology. However, OSHE with optical excitation lacks active control of photon angular momentum at deep subwavelength scale because of the optical diffraction limit. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a selective manipulation of photon spin angular momentum at a deep subwavelength scale via electron-induced OSHE in Au nanoantennas. The inversion of the OSHE radiation pattern is observed by angle-resolved cathodoluminescence polarimetry with the electron impact position shifting within 80 nm in a single antenna unit. By this selective steering of photon spin, we propose an information encoding with robustness, privacy, and high level of integration at a deep subwavelength scale for the future quantum applications.

Photonic spin Hall effect by anisotropy-induced polarization gradient in momentum space

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally a novel photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE), to the best of our knowledge, at an interface between air and uniaxial crystal, whose optical axis is within the interface plane. Owing to the anisotropy of the crystal, partial cross polarization conversion occurs. For a horizontally polarized paraxial Gaussian beam incidence, a linear polarization gradient forms along the in-plane wavevector in the reflected beam, allowing us to achieve spin separation in real space. The spin separation of the reflected beam can be tuned by rotating the optical axis of the crystal. A maximum spin-dependent displacement up to 0.45 times the incident beam waist is obtained at Brewster incidence. This novel anisotropy-induced PSHE deepens the understanding of spin-orbit interaction and provides a new way for control of spin photons.

Engineering spin-orbit synthetic Hamiltonians in liquid-crystal optical cavities

Spin-orbit interactions lead to distinctive functionalities in photonic systems. They exploit the analogy between the quantum mechanical description of a complex electronic spin-orbit system and synthetic Hamiltonians derived for the propagation of electromagnetic waves in dedicated spatial structures. We realize an artificial Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction in a liquid crystal–filled optical cavity. Three-dimensional tomography in energy-momentum space enabled us to directly evidence the spin-split photon mode in the presence of an artificial spin-orbit coupling. The effect is observed when two orthogonal linear polarized modes of opposite parity are brought near resonance. Engineering of spin-orbit synthetic Hamiltonians in optical cavities opens the door to photonic emulators of quantum Hamiltonians with internal degrees of freedom.