Observation of photonic spin Hall effect with phase singularity at dielectric metasurfaces

Observation of photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) near the phase singularity at dielectric metasurfaces is presented. The structured metasurface works as a space-variant Pancharatnam-Berry phase element and produces a vortex beam with phase singularity. The dynamical vortex phase is introduced to eliminate or enhance the phase singularity, thus realizing the manipulation of spin-dependent Pancharatnam-Berry phase. The spin-orbit coupling near the singularity of the Pancharatnam-Berry phase leads to the observation of the photonic SHE which manifests itself as spin-dependent splitting. The underlying mechanism is significantly different from previously reported cases. It thereby provides an alternative way to manipulate the spin states of photons. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America