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arXiv:1307.6057 · New Journal of Physics

Goos–Hänchen and Imbert–Fedorov shifts from a quantum-mechanical perspective

Falk Töppel, Marco Ornigotti, Andrea Aiello

Published Nov 27, 2013• 90 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the classical optics effects known as Goos–Hänchen and Imbert–Fedorov shifts, occurring when reflecting a bounded light beam from a planar surface, by using a quantum-mechanical formalism. This new approach allows us to naturally separate the spatial shift into two parts, one independent on orbital angular momentum (OAM) and the other one showing OAM-induced spatial-versus-angular shift mixing. In addition, within this quantum-mechanical-like formalism, it becomes apparent that the angular shift is proportional to the beams angular spread, namely to the variance of the transverse components of the wave vector. Moreover, we extend our treatment to the enhancement of beam shifts via weak measurements and relate our results to the recent experiments.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/15/11/113059

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We study the classical optics effects known as Goos–Hänchen and Imbert–Fedorov shifts, occurring when reflecting a bounded light beam from a planar surface, by using a quantum-mechanical formalism. This new approach allows us to naturally separate the spatial shift into two parts, one independent on orbital angular momentum (OAM) and the other one showing OAM-induced spatial-versus-angular shift mixing. In addition, within this quantum-mechanical-like formalism, it becomes apparent that the angular shift is proportional to the beams angular spread, namely to the variance of the transverse components of the wave vector. Moreover, we extend our treatment to the enhancement of beam shifts via weak measurements and relate our results to the recent experiments.
Tiny but universal beam shifts occur when a polarized light beam is reflected upon a planar interface. Although the beam shifts of Gaussian beams have been measured by the weak measurement technique, the weak measurement for orbital angular momentum (OAM)-induced spatial shifts of vortex beams is still missing. Here, by elaborately choosing the preselection and postselection states, the tiny OAM-induced Goos–Hanchen and Imbert–Fedorov shifts are amplified at an air–prism interface. The maximum shifts along directions both parallel and perpendicular to the incident plane are theoretically predicted and experimentally verified with optimal preselection and postselection states. These maximum shifts can be used to determine the OAM of vortex beams.
As a paraxial wave packet is reflected or refracted from a planar interface separating two material media, it experiences spatial and angular shifts of its center position with respect to predictions of the geometrical ray picture. These in-plane and out-of-plane beam shifts are known as Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov shifts, respectively. We discover a universal link between the phase-space nonseparability of an incident wave packet of any degree of spatial coherence and the reflected beam shifts. We unveil coherence Goos-Hänchen and coherence Hall effects, absent in the fully coherent limit. While the former effect can trigger a pronounced enhancement of the spatial Goos-Hänchen shift, the latter enables control of the spatial Imbert-Fedorov shift, from complete cancellation at a certain incidence angle to dramatic enhancement of the shift to giant magnitudes for nearly incoherent incident wave packets. Our results are equally applicable to optical, x-ray, and neutron, as well as matter waves, and they showcase novel phenomena in wave-matter interactions.
The optical analogue of quantum weak measurements has shown considerable promise for the amplification and observation of tiny optical beam shifts, namely Goos-Hänchen (GH) and Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shifts. Here, we demonstrate simultaneous weak value amplification of both the angular GH and the IF shifts in partial reflection of a fundamental Gaussian beam at planar dielectric interfaces. We employ pre and postselection schemes with appropriate linear polarization basis states for simultaneous weak measurements and amplification of both of these shifts. The experimentally observed enhancement of the beam shifts and their dependence on the angle of incidence are analyzed/interpreted via theoretical treatment of weak measurements.
We describe how the notion of optical beam shifts (including the spatial and angular Goos-Hänchen shift and Imbert-Federov shift) can be understood as a classical analogue of a quantum measurement of the polarization state of a paraxial beam by its transverse amplitude distribution.Under this scheme, complex quantum weak values are interpreted as spatial and angular shifts of polarized scalar components of the reflected beam.This connection leads us to predict an extra spatial shift for beams with a radially-varying phase dependance.Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Weak quantum measurement 4 3.The analogy between beam shifts and quantum measurement 5 4. The case of radial and azimuthally varying pointer phase 9 5. Discussion
The spatial and the angular variants of the Imbert-Federov (IF) beam shifts and the angular Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift contribute in a complex interrelated way to the resultant beam shift in partial reflection at planar dielectric interfaces. Here, we show that the two variants of the IF effects can be decoupled and separately observed by weak value amplification and subsequent conversion of spatial ↔angular nature of the beam shifts using appropriate pre and post selection of polarization states. Such optimized weak measurement schemes also enable one to nullify one effect (either the GH or the IF) and exclusively observe the other. We experimentally demonstrate this and illustrate various other intriguing manifestations of optimized weak measurements in elliptical and / or linear polarization basis. We also present a Poincare sphere based analysis on conversion / retention of the angular or spatial nature of the shifts with pre and post selection of states in weak measurement. The demonstrated ability to amplify, controllably decouple or combine the beam shifts via weak measurements may prove to be valuable for understanding the different physical contributions of the effects and for their applications in sensing and precision metrology.
The Goos-Hänchen shifts are tiny deviations, in the incidence plane, from the laws of geometrical optics, which are observed when applying these laws to the central axes of incident and reflected light beams. The axis of the reflected beam does not generally emanate from the surface at the incidence point of the impinging beam (spatial shift) and the angle of the axis of the reflected beam does not generally match exactly the incidence angle (angular shift). In this theoretical work, we show how to exploit pre- and post-selected weak measurements of the light polarization to probe the spatial and angular Goos-Hänchen shifts occurring for paraxial Gaussian beams emitted by a surface nonlinear optical process, such as second-harmonic (SHG) of sum-frequency generation (SFG). Pre- and post-selected weak measurements, which were initially developed to probe foundational issues in quantum mechanics, proved very useful to enhance the minute shifts in linear optics that were undetectable otherwise, through a process called weak-value amplification. We further reveal the usefulness of amplified weak measurements in the context of nonlinear optics.