Characterizing optical chirality

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.021803· OSTI ID:21537105

Bliokh, Konstantin Y ^[1]; Nori, Franco ^[2]

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1. Applied Optics Group, School of Physics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway (Ireland)
2. Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan)

We examine the recently introduced measure of chirality of a monochromatic optical field [Y. Tang and A. E. Cohen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 163901 (2010)] using the momentum (plane-wave) representation and helicity basis. Our analysis clarifies the physical meaning of the measure of chirality and unveils its close relation to the polarization helicity, spin angular momentum, energy density, and Poynting energy flow. We derive the operators of the optical chirality and of the corresponding chiral momentum, which acquire remarkably simple forms in the helicity representation.

• OSTI ID: 21537105
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.021803; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
CHIRALITY
ENERGY DENSITY
HELICITY
MONOCHROMATIC RADIATION
POLARIZATION
SPIN
WAVE PROPAGATION
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS