An Evanescent Light Wave Cannot Possess a Transverse Spin

Chunfang Li, Yunlong Zhang

Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.

DOI: 10.4236/jmp.2019.104031                

Abstract

It is pointed out that the evanescent light wave occurring at total reflection does not possess a transverse spin angular momentum as Bliokh, Bekshaev, and Nori claimed recently in (2014) Nature Communications, 5,3300. This is not only because of the nonlocality of the photon spin but also because the evanescent wave is such a state whose angular momentum cannot be separated into spin and orbital parts.

Keywords

Nonexistence, Transverse Spin, Evanescent Light Wave

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no competing nancial interests.

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