Spin-dependent phenomena at chiral temporal interfaces

Abstract

Temporally varying electromagnetic media have been extensively investigated recently to unveil new means for controlling light. However, spin-dependent phenomena in such media have not been explored thoroughly. Here, we reveal the existence of spin-dependent phenomena at a temporal interface between chiral and dielectric media. In particular, we show theoretically and numerically that due to the material discontinuity in time, linearly polarized light is split into forward-propagating right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized waves having different angular frequencies and the same phase velocities. This salient effect allows complete temporal separation of the two spin states of light with high efficiency. In addition, a phenomenon of spin-dependent gain/loss is observed. Furthermore, we show that when the dielectric medium is switched back to the original chiral medium, the right- and left-handed circularly polarized light waves (with different angular frequencies) merge to form a linearly polarized wave. Our findings extend spin-dependent interactions of light from space to space-time.