Yuquan Zhou’s research while affiliated with Xiamen University and other places

The optical spin Hall effect, as an optical analogue of spin-orbit coupling of fermionic electrons, has attracted increasing interest in fundamental physics and nanophotonic applications. In addition to spin, charge of particles, as the other degree of freedom, plays a significant role in spin-orbit interaction as well. However, the optical counterpart of charge conjugation has been absent due to the charge-free nature of photons. Here, in a one-dimensional photonic crystal, we report reversible optical spin currents from the opposite band edges of the photonic band gap, which can provide an optical analogue of charge conjugation in spin-orbit coupling. The effective magnetic field acting on the photons is controlled by the tunable splitting of the transverse electric and transverse magnetic optical modes, which is confirmed by both experiment and simulation. Based on the tunable effective magnetic field, the optical spin current can be controlled by the tunable cavity length in an open cavity. Our results will facilitate the development of optical spintronic devices and guide the understanding of analogies and generalizations involving quantum and classical wave theories.