Electrically engineering synthetic magnetic fields for polarized photons

• DOI: 10.1364/optica.527811
• Publication Date: 2024-06-24T18:00:17Z
• Authors: Guohua Liu; Zepei Zeng; Haolin Lin; Yanwen Hu; Zhen Li; Zhenqiang Chen; Shenhe Fu
• Keywords: Photon polarization

Polarized photons are, in essence, neutral particles and therefore do not couple directly to external fields, thus hampering the effective interaction of with fields. Here, we theoretically identify an equivalent spin-1/2 model for polarized synthesize a magnetization vector coupling differently engineered anisotropic medium. The synthetic magnetic field can be electrically manipulate moments pseudo-spin-1/2 photons, leading observation Lorentz force analogous Stern–Gerlach effect. We experimentally demonstrate these fundamental effects by using different spins, including purely single-polarization spins mutually two-polarization mixing spins. also higher-order effect having nontrivial topological structures. Our findings could enable polarization-based elements potential applications polarization selection conversion, benefiting classical quantum information processing.