Particle nature of the photonic spin Hall effect

Abstract

It is widely recognized that light exhibits a wave-particle duality. However, the explanation for the photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) primarily relies on the wave nature of light as dictated by Maxwell’s Equations. There is a lack of exploration into the particle nature of light in this regard. In this context, we offer a fresh interpretation of the PSHE from the perspective of particle nature of light. For the out-of-plane PSHE, the spin shifts result from the macroscopic manifestation of the conservation of spin-orbital angular momentum of one photon. For the in-plane PSHE, the spin shifts arise from the spread of in-plane wavevector. Based on the wave nature of light, we also obtain the same spin shifts, confirming the consistency of the wave-particle duality of light. Furthermore, we find that the spin shifts of the PSHE are not the overall displacement of photons with the same handedness, but the outcome of coherent superposition among photons of the same handedness. These discoveries further enhance our comprehension of the fundamental nature of the PSHE.