Spin separations in the spin Hall effect of light

In the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) with an incident linear polarization, the left circularly polarized (LCP) and the right circularly polarized (RCP) spin components are transversely shifted to opposite sides of the incident plane. We find that each spin component of the reflected or the refracted light is actually the coherent superposition of a pair with the same handedness. The two parts in a pair are generated by both the incident LCP and RCP components, respectively, and have different transverse shifts. Their weighted shifts lead to the overall displacement of the corresponding spin component. This perspective can successfully elucidate the dependence of the SHEL spin separations on the angle of polarization of the incident electric field.National Basic Research Program of China [2013CB921904]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11474010, 11023003, 11121091, 11134001]SCI(E)EIARTICLEli@pku.edu.cn19