Spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in non-Hermitian photonic graphene
Abstract
Optical beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM) have numerous potential applications, but the means used for their generation often lack crucial on-demand control. In this work, we present a mechanism of converting spin angular momentum (SAM) to OAM in a nonstructured beam. The conversion occurs through spin-orbit coupling in a reconfigurable photonic honeycomb lattice with staggering implemented by electromagnetically induced transparency in an atomic vapor cell. The spin-orbit coupling allows to outcouple the OAM signal from a particular band in a given valley determined by the chirality of light or the lattice staggering, providing a nonzero Berry curvature for generating OAM. The dependence of the output OAM on the chirality of the input beam is the first control knob. The staggering works as a second control knob, flipping the sign of OAM for the fixed chirality. The demonstrated conversion between SAM and OAM is important for optical communications. Our results can be extended to other implementations of paraxial photonic graphene.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026spintoorbital,
title = {{Spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in non-Hermitian photonic graphene}},
author = {Zhaoyang Zhang and Pavel Kokhanchik and Zhenzhi Liu and Yutong Shen and Fu Liu and Maochang Liu and Yanpeng Zhang and Min Xiao and Guillaume Malpuech and Dmitry Solnyshkov},
journal = {Physical Review Research},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1103/w2qs-lqqt},
eprint = {2504.03252},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05859019v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in non-Hermitian photonic graphene
AU - Zhaoyang Zhang
AU - Pavel Kokhanchik
AU - Zhenzhi Liu
AU - Yutong Shen
AU - Fu Liu
AU - Maochang Liu
AU - Yanpeng Zhang
AU - Min Xiao
AU - Guillaume Malpuech
AU - Dmitry Solnyshkov
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/12
JO - Physical Review Research
DO - 10.1103/w2qs-lqqt
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05859019v1
AB - Optical beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM) have numerous potential applications, but the means used for their generation often lack crucial on-demand control. In this work, we present a mechanism of converting spin angular momentum (SAM) to OAM in a nonstructured beam. The conversion occurs through spin-orbit coupling in a reconfigurable photonic honeycomb lattice with staggering implemented by electromagnetically induced transparency in an atomic vapor cell. The spin-orbit coupling allows to outcouple the OAM signal from a particular band in a given valley determined by the chirality of light or the lattice staggering, providing a nonzero Berry curvature for generating OAM. The dependence of the output OAM on the chirality of the input beam is the first control knob. The staggering works as a second control knob, flipping the sign of OAM for the fixed chirality. The demonstrated conversion between SAM and OAM is important for optical communications. Our results can be extended to other implementations of paraxial photonic graphene.
SN - 2643-1564
SN - 2643-1564
ER -