The spin Hall effect is a basic phenomenon
arising from the spin-orbit coupling of electrons [1]. The optical spin Hall
effect (OSHE) – beam displacement and momentum shift due to the optical spin
(polarization helicity) – was recently presented [2-4]. The effect was
attributed to the optical spin-orbit interaction occurring when the light
passes through an anisotropic and inhomogeneous medium. Here, we present and
experimentally observe the optical spin Hall effects in coupled localized
plasmonic chains [5]. The effect occurring solely as a result of the curvature
of the coupled localized plasmonic chain is regarded as the locally
isotropic OSHE, while the locally anisotropic OSHE arises from the
interaction between the optical spin and the local anisotropy of the plasmonic
mode rotating along the chain. A wavefront phase dislocation was observed in a
circular curvature, in which the dislocation strength was enhanced by the locally
anisotropic effect.

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References

[1]     
M. I. Dyakonov and V. I. Perel, Phys.
Lett. A 35, 459 (1971).

[2]     
K. Y. Bliokh, A. Niv, V. Kleiner, and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />E. Hasman, Nature Photon. 2, 748 (2008).

[3]     
Y. Gorodetski, S. Nechayev, V. Kleiner, and
E. Hasman, Phys. Rev. B 82, 125433(2010).

[4]     
N. Dahan, Y. Gorodetski, K. Frischwasser,
V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 136402 (2010).

[5]     
N. Shitrit, I.
Bretner, Y. Gorodetski, V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, Nano Lett. 11, 2038
(2011).