Engineering spin-orbit synthetic Hamiltonians in liquid-crystal optical cavities
Abstract
Spin-orbit interactions lead to distinctive functionalities in photonic systems. They exploit the analogy between the quantum mechanical description of a complex electronic spin-orbit system and synthetic Hamiltonians derived for the propagation of electromagnetic waves in dedicated spatial structures. We realize an artificial Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction in a liquid crystal-filled optical cavity. Three-dimensional tomography in energy-momentum space enabled us to directly evidence the spin-split photon mode in the presence of an artificial spin-orbit coupling. The effect is observed when two orthogonal linear polarized modes of opposite parity are brought near resonance. Engineering of spin-orbit synthetic Hamiltonians in optical cavities opens the door to photonic emulators of quantum Hamiltonians with internal degrees of freedom.
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The successful introduction of liquid crystal molecules into microcavities sustains synthetic spin-orbit coupling with broad tunability and realization of the RD Hamiltonian.
“More recently, the successful introduction of liquid crystal (LC) molecules into microcavities has been shown to sustain synthetic spinorbit coupling with broad tunability and realization of the RD Hamiltonian [23-26].”
From Trembling Motion of Exciton Polaritons Close to the Rashba-Dresselhaus Regime (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
Tuning is directly achieved by applying an electrical field to rotate LC molecules, allowing precise perturbation of the RD Hamiltonian and providing a novel on-chip platform with dynamical tunability for complete emulation of ZB and further relativistic quantum effects at room temperature.
“Tuning is directly achieved by applying an electrical field to rotate the LC molecules, which allows to precisely perturb the RD Hamiltonian and provides a novel on-chip platform with dynamical tunability for the complete emulation of the ZB effect and further relativistic quantum effects at room temperature.”
From Trembling Motion of Exciton Polaritons Close to the Rashba-Dresselhaus Regime (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
Cites
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
Spin–orbit coupling in quantum gases
Galitski, V., & Spielman, I. B. (2013) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature11841 · Cited by 963 · cited 1× · see citing works
“However, the study of artificial Rashba-Dresselhaus spinorbit gauge fields has been so far predominantly restricted to nano-Kelvin temperatures in atomic systems (25,26).”
BackgroundStrain-induced pseudomagnetic field and photonic Landau levels in dielectric structures
Rechtsman, M. C., Zeuner, J. M., Tünnermann, A., Nolte, S., Segev, M., & Szameit, A. (2013) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2012.302 · Cited by 453 · see citing works
Coriolis Effect in Optics: Unified Geometric Phase and Spin-Hall Effect
Bliokh, K. Y., Gorodetski, Y., Kleiner, V., & Hasman, E. (2008) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.030404 · Cited by 363 · see citing works
Geometrodynamics of polarized light: Berry phase and spin Hall effect in a gradient-index medium
Bliokh, K. Y. (2009) · Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics · doi:10.1088/1464-4258/11/9/094009 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Spin-orbit interactions of light
Bliokh, K. Y., Rodriguez-Fortuno, F. J., Nori, F., & Zayats, A. V. (2015) · arXiv
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Optical analogue of Dresselhaus spin–orbit interaction in photonic graphene
Whittaker, C. E., Dowling, T., Nalitov, A. V., Yulin, A. V., Royall, B., Clarke, E., Skolnick, M. S., Shelykh, I. A., & Krizhanovskii, D. N. (2021) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/s41566-020-00729-z · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Trembling Motion of Exciton Polaritons Close to the Rashba-Dresselhaus Regime
Wen, W., Liang, J., Xu, H., Jin, F., Rubo, Y. G., Liew, T. C. H., & Su, R. (2024) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.133.116903 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“More recently, the successful introduction of liquid crystal (LC) molecules into microcavities has been shown to sustain synthetic spin-orbit coupling with broad tunability and realization of the RD Hamiltonian [23–26].”
BackgroundNon-Abelian Electric Field and <i>Zitterbewegung</i> on a Photonic Frequency Chain
Yang, S., Wong, B. T. T., Hu, J., & Yang, Y. (2026) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/qy4y-171h · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rechcińska, K., Król, M., Mazur, R., Morawiak, P., Mirek, R., Łempicka, K., Bardyszewski, W., Matuszewski, M., Kula, P., Piecek, W., Lagoudakis, P. G., Piętka, B., & Szczytko, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Warsaw (PL)
- Military University of Technology in Warsaw (PL)
- Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, ul. Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
- Institute of Physics (PL)
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (RU)
- Corresponding author
- Rechcińska, Katarzyna
- Król, Mateusz
- Lagoudakis, Pavlos G.
- Szczytko, Jacek
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2019-11-08
- Volume
- 366
- Issue
- 6466
- Pages
- 727-730
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2984655381
- Cited by
- 168
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 7.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki (2016/23/B/ST3/03926, 2016/22/E/ST3/00045, 2017/27/B/ST3/00271, 2018/31/N/ST3/03046)
- Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyzszego (0005/DIA/2016/45, 0109/DIA/2015/44)
- EPSRC (EP/M025330/1)
- Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej (13–995)
- 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 › Strong Light-Matter Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
- Keywords
- spin-orbit coupling, Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, parity mode, linearly polarized modes
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