Imaging the spin Hall effect of light inside semiconductors via absorption.
The opposite transverse shifts for the right and left circular polarization components of a 100 fs 820 nm linearly polarized pulse focused onto GaAs are observed in situ via absorption. A time-delayed normally incident probe pulse scanned across the excitation spot detects the differential circular dichroism associated with the pump-induced transfer of spin angular momentum from light to electrons. More generally, we show that for a nonnormally incident probe, one can observe the spin Hall effect for probe light through a variety of pump-induced changes to a material's optical properties.
Ménard
Jean-Michel
JM
Department of Physics and Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7. jmenard@physics.utoronto.ca
Mattacchione
Adam E
AE
Betz
Markus
M
van Driel
Henry M
HM