title: Angular momentum decomposition of nonparaxial light beams.
abstract: The total angular momentum per unit length of a general non-paraxial beam is decomposed into an orbital component associated with the spiral spectrum at the far field and a component concerning the balance between right- and left-handed circular-polarization content of the angular spectrum. Expressions for the linear momentum and energy per unit length are also provided. The well-known division into orbital and spin components is shown to be recovered in the paraxial limit.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Optica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-Herrero
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Mejías