Abstract

We have detected spin-dependent splitting of light, the signature of the photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE), via quantum weak measurements on two types of thin films with architected columnar morphology. Specifically, we fabricated columnar thin films comprising parallel tilted nanocolumns and chiral sculptured thin films comprising parallel upright nanohelices by resistively heating zinc selenide (ZnSe) in a low-pressure chamber and collecting the collimated vapor flux of ZnSe on planar substrates with dynamically varying orientation. The architected columnar morphology creates a spin-dependent geometric Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) phase corresponding to the evolution of polarization states on the Poincaré sphere. Morphology-controlled anisotropy and spatial inhomogeneity result in the depolarization and optical rotation of incident plane-polarized light, and intrinsic spin-precession coupling with the propagation vector, contributing to the efficient generation and two-dimensional manipulation of both in-plane and out-of-plane spin splitting and steering the PB phase in the propagation process. The first experimental observations of widely tailorable PSHE and PB phase in thin films with architected columnar morphology may lead to new applications ranging from spin-controlled nanophotonics to optoelectronic devices for quantum information processing and optical communication.

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