Intrinsic and Extrinsic Nature of the Orbital Angular Momentum of a Light Beam
Top Cited Papers
- 16 January 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 88 (5) , 053601
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.88.053601
Abstract
We explain that, unlike the spin angular momentum of a light beam which is always intrinsic, the orbital angular momentum may be either extrinsic or intrinsic. Numerical calculations of both spin and orbital angular momentum are confirmed by means of experiments with particles trapped off axis in optical tweezers, where the size of the particle means it interacts with only a fraction of the beam profile. Orbital angular momentum is intrinsic only when the interaction with matter is about an axis where there is no net transverse momentum.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Integer and Fractional Angular Momentum Borne on Self-Trapped Necklace-Ring BeamsPhysical Review Letters, 2001
- The Poynting vector in Laguerre–Gaussian beams and the interpretation of their angular momentum densityOptics Communications, 2000
- Optical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particlesNature, 1998
- Gaussian beams with very high orbital angular momentumOptics Communications, 1997
- Optical wavefront dislocations and their propertiesOptics Communications, 1995
- Direct Observation of Transfer of Angular Momentum to Absorptive Particles from a Laser Beam with a Phase SingularityPhysical Review Letters, 1995
- Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modesPhysical Review A, 1992
- Observation of a single-beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particlesOptics Letters, 1986
- Classical ElectrodynamicsPhysics Today, 1962
- Mechanical Detection and Measurement of the Angular Momentum of LightPhysical Review B, 1936