Dudley Angela, Sephton Bereneice, Nguyen Thien-An, Brady Nathan S, Slussarenko Sergei, Alfano Robert R, Forbes Andrew, Padgett Miles J, Milione Giovanni, Lavery Martin P J
Opt Lett. 2024 Oct 1;49(19):5447-5450. doi: 10.1364/OL.534320.
Symmetry breaking has been shown to reveal interesting phenomena in physical systems. A notable example is the fundamental work of Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach [Stern and Zerlach, Z. Physik9, 349 (1922)10.1007/BF01326983] nearly 100 years ago demonstrating a spin angular momentum (SAM) deflection that differed from classical theory. Here we use non-separable states of SAM and orbital angular momentum (OAM), known as vector vortex modes, to demonstrate how a classical optics analogy can be used to reveal this non-separability, reminiscent of the work carried out by Stern and Gerlach. We show that by implementing a polarization insensitive device to measure the OAM, the SAM states can be deflected to spatially resolved positions.
