Spin Hall effect of light in metallic reflection

We report the first measurement of the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) on an air-metal interface. The SHEL is a polarization-dependent out-of-plane shift on the reflected beam. For the case of metallic reflection with a linearly polarized incident light, both the spatial and angular variants of the shift are observed and are maximum for -45 degrees/45 degrees polarization, but zero for pure s and p polarization. For an incoming beam with circular polarization states however, only the spatial out-of-plane shift is present. (C) 2011 Optical Society of Americ