Loss enhanced spin Hall effect of transmitted light through anisotropic epsilon- and mu-near-zero metamaterial slab.

Spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) is prosperous in precision metrology and quantum information processing. In normal situations, the inevitable loss of material will greatly weaken SHEL, which is a major constraint to its potential applications. We first report the loss enhanced SHEL through epsilon and mu-near-zero (EMNZ) metamaterial slab by anisotropic configuration of epsilon and mu tensors. It is verified that the loss of EMNZ metamaterial can effectively enlarge the splitting between right-circularly polarized (RCP) and left-circularly polarized light (LCP) components of linear polarized light even when the incident angle is much larger than critical angle. Calculation results show that when the imaginary part of permeability's vertical component is equal to 0.1, a flat-top transverse shift peak can be observed which remains unchanged for different vertical component of permeability and thickness of EMNZ metamaterial. In this case the maximum transverse shift of left-circularly polarized light can be increased to 24.676 micrometers by EMNZ metamaterial loss without any amplification method. Meanwhile, the transverse shifts of RCP (LCP) light can be modulated flexibly by EMNZ metamaterial loss. Therefore the loss enhanced SHEL makes quantum devices applicable which paves the way towards on-chip and inter-chip optical circuitry.