Spin Hall effect of light in magneto-optical thin-film structures

Abstract

The spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) refers to the transverse, spin-dependent splitting of a light beam upon transmission and reflection, occurring perpendicular to the plane of incidence. This effect has applications in optical measurement systems and sensors. This study investigates SHEL in a magneto-optical layered structure with an s-polarized incident beam and a wavelength of 1550 nm, focusing on its dependence on the incidence angle, magnetic field, and the magneto-optical layer thickness. We analyze the transmission and reflection coefficients and the SHEL, utilizing the transfer matrix and angular spectrum methods. Our results show that the SHEL of transmitted beam increases with the incidence angle, reaching 0.15λ, while the SHEL of reflected beam decreases from 20λ to zero. Notably, magnetic field variations showed minimal impact on SHEL and displacement differences. However, changing the magneto-optical layer thickness influences the SHEL of the transmitted beam while not affecting the reflected beam.