Intrinsic and Extrinsic Nature of the Orbital Angular Momentum of a Light Beam
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Superposition of the original σ-polarized state and the converted (-σ)-polarized state with the exp(2iσφ) vortex generates characteristic 'four-petal' patterns in the first and second Stokes parameters S1 and S2; this effect was observed in diffusive backscattering from microparticle suspensions, scattering by liquid-crystal droplets, and dipole nanoparticle scattering.
“Superposition of the original σ -polarized state and the converted ( -σ )-polarized state with the exp 2 i σφ ( ) vortex generates characteristic 'four-petal' patterns in the first and second Stokes parameters S 1 and S 2 , Fig. 2e. This effect was observed in systems of different nature and scales: diffusive backscattering from microparticle suspensions 109- 111 , scattering by”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [111]
Cites
(2020) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctv131bv37.5 · Cited by 22,595 · see citing works
Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes
Allen, L., Beijersbergen, M. W., Spreeuw, R. J. C., & Woerdman, J. P. (1992) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.45.8185 · Cited by 10,455 · see citing works
Self-citationObservation of a single-beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particles
Ashkin, A., Dziedzic, J. M., Bjorkholm, J. E., & Chu, S. (1986) · Optics Letters · doi:10.1364/ol.11.000288 · Cited by 7,049 · see citing works
He, H., Friese, M. E. J., Heckenberg, N. R., & Rubinsztein-Dunlop, H. H. (1995) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.75.826 · Cited by 1,667 · see citing works
Mechanical Detection and Measurement of the Angular Momentum of Light
Beth, R. A. (1936) · Physical Review · doi:10.1103/physrev.50.115 · Cited by 1,354 · see citing works
Mechanical equivalence of spin and orbital angular momentum of light: an optical spanner
Simpson, N. B., Dholakia, K., Allen, L., & Padgett, M. J. (1997) · Optics Letters · doi:10.1364/ol.22.000052 · Cited by 1,120 · see citing works
Self-citationOptical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particles
Friese, M. E. J., Nieminen, T. A., Heckenberg, N. R., & Rubinsztein-Dunlop, H. H. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/28566 · Cited by 1,021 · see citing works
Jackson, J. D., & Levitt, L. C. (1962) · Physics Today · doi:10.1063/1.3057859 · Cited by 823 · see citing works
Poincaré-sphere equivalent for light beams containing orbital angular momentum
Padgett, M. J., & Courtial, J. (1999) · Optics Letters · doi:10.1364/ol.24.000430 · Cited by 442 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Poynting vector in Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes
Padgett, M. J., & Allen, L. (1995) · Optics Communications · doi:10.1016/0030-4018(95)00455-h · Cited by 338 · see citing works
Self-citationOptical wavefront dislocations and their properties
Basistiy, I. V., Soskin, M. S., & Vasnetsov, M. V. (1995) · Optics Communications · doi:10.1016/0030-4018(95)00267-c · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Allen, L. J., & Padgett, M. J. (2000) · Optics Communications · doi:10.1016/s0030-4018(00)00960-3 · Cited by 271 · see citing works
Self-citationGaussian beams with very high orbital angular momentum
Courtial, J., Dholakia, K., Allen, L., & Padgett, M. J. (1997) · Optics Communications · doi:10.1016/s0030-4018(97)00376-3 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Self-citationInteger and Fractional Angular Momentum Borne on Self-Trapped Necklace-Ring Beams
Marin Soljacic, A., & Segev, M. (2001) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.86.420 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
International Conference on Singular Optics
Soskin, M. S. (1998) · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Spin–orbit interactions of light
Bliokh, K. Y., Rodríguez-Fortuño, F. J., Nori, F., & Zayats, A. V. (2015) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2015.201 · Cited by 2,276 · see citing works
Optical Spin-to-Orbital Angular Momentum Conversion in Inhomogeneous Anisotropic Media
Marrucci, L., Manzo, C., & Paparo, D. (2006) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.163905 · Cited by 2,115 · see citing works
Transverse and longitudinal angular momenta of light
Bliokh, K. Y., & Nori, F. (2015) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2015.06.003 · Cited by 954 · see citing works
Extraordinary momentum and spin in evanescent waves
Bliokh, K. Y., Bekshaev, A. Y., & Nori, F. (2014) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms4300 · Cited by 797 · see citing works
Curtis, J. E., & Grier, D. G. (2003) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.133901 · Cited by 692 · see citing works
Spin-to-Orbital Angular Momentum Conversion in a Strongly Focused Optical Beam
Zhao, Y., Edgar, J. S., Jeffries, G. D. M., McGloin, D., & Chiu, D. T. (2007) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.073901 · Cited by 665 · see citing works
Goos–Hänchen and Imbert–Fedorov beam shifts: an overview
Bliokh, K. Y., & Aiello, A. (2013) · Journal of Optics · doi:10.1088/2040-8978/15/1/014001 · Cited by 639 · see citing works
Metasurface Orbital Angular Momentum Holography
Ren, H., Briere, G., Fang, X., Ni, P., Sawant, R., Héron, S., Chenot, S., Vézian, S., Damilano, B., Brändli, V., et al. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11030-1 · Cited by 599 · see citing works
Marrucci, L., Karimi, E., Slussarenko, S., Piccirillo, B., Santamato, E., Nagali, E., & Sciarrino, F. (2011) · Journal of Optics · doi:10.1088/2040-8978/13/6/064001 · Cited by 510 · see citing works
Dual electromagnetism: helicity, spin, momentum and angular momentum
Bliokh, K. Y., Bekshaev, A. Y., & Nori, F. (2013) · New Journal of Physics · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/3/033026 · Cited by 393 · see citing works
Internal flows and energy circulation in light beams
Bekshaev, A., Bliokh, K. Y., & Soskin, M. (2011) · Journal of Optics · doi:10.1088/2040-8978/13/5/053001 · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Garcés-Chávez, V., McGloin, D., Padgett, M. J., Dultz, W., Schmitzer, H., & Dholakia, K. (2003) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.093602 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
Self-citationTransverse spin of a surface polariton
Bliokh, K. Y., & Nori, F. (2012) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.85.061801 · Cited by 364 · see citing works
On-Chip Noninterference Angular Momentum Multiplexing of Broadband Light
Ren, H., Li, X., Zhang, Q., & Gu, M. (2016) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaf1112 · Cited by 321 · see citing works
Angular momenta and spin-orbit interaction of nonparaxial light in free space
Bliokh, K. Y., Alonso, M. A., Ostrovskaya, E. A., & Aiello, A. (2010) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.82.063825 · Cited by 319 · see citing works
Observation of Optical Spin Symmetry Breaking in Nanoapertures
Gorodetski, Y., Shitrit, N., Bretner, I., Kleiner, V., & Hasman, E. (2009) · Nano Letters · doi:10.1021/nl901437d · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Electromagnetic Spin-Orbit Interactions via Scattering of Subwavelength Apertures
Vuong, L. T., Adam, A. J. L., Brok, J. M., Planken, P. C. M., & Urbach, H. P. (2010) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.083903 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Angular momentum of focused beams: Beyond the paraxial approximation
Monteiro, P. B., Neto, P. A. M., & Nussenzveig, H. M. (2009) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.79.033830 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Zhao, Y., Shapiro, D., Mcgloin, D., Chiu, D. T., & Marchesini, S. (2009) · Optics Express · doi:10.1364/oe.17.023316 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Li, C.-F. (2009) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.80.063814 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Okuda, H., & Sasada, H. (2008) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.25.000881 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Plasmonic Aharonov-Bohm effect: Optical spin as the magnetic flux parameter
Gorodetski, Y., Nechayev, S., Kleiner, V., & Hasman, E. (2010) · Physical Review B · doi:10.1103/physrevb.82.125433 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Mie scattering distinguishes the topological charge of an optical vortex: a homage to Gustav Mie
Garbin, V., Volpe, G., Ferrari, E., Versluis, M., Cojoc, D., & Petrov, D. (2009) · New Journal of Physics · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/11/1/013046 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Manifestations of geometric phase and enhanced spin Hall shifts in an optical trap
Roy, B., Ghosh, N., Banerjee, A., Gupta, S. D., & Roy, S. (2014) · New Journal of Physics · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/16/8/083037 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Photon wave function: A covariant formulation and equivalence with QED
Tamburini, F., & Vicino, D. (2008) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.78.052116 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Adachi, H., Akahoshi, S., & Miyakawa, K. (2007) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.75.063409 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Okuda, H., & Sasada, H. (2006) · Optics Express · doi:10.1364/oe.14.008393 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
On the six components of optical angular momentum
Barnett, S. M. (2011) · Journal of Optics · doi:10.1088/2040-8978/13/6/064010 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Spin-orbit interactions of light in isotropic media
Bliokh, K. Y., Aiello, A., & Alonso, M. A. (2012) · The Angular Momentum of Light · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511795213.009 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Spin-orbit interactions of light
Bliokh, K. Y., Rodriguez-Fortuno, F. J., Nori, F., & Zayats, A. V. (2015) · arXiv
- Authors
- O'Neil, A. T., MacVicar, I., Allen, L., & Padgett, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- ORCID
- Padgett, M. J.
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2002-01-16
- Volume
- 88
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 053601-053601
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2091593633
- Cited by
- 1,005
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 58 · 2018: 52 · 2017: 55 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 53 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 39
- FWCI
- 14.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
- Keywords
- orbital angular momentum, spin angular momentum, optical tweezers, transverse momentum, light-matter interaction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
