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There are many ways to spin a photon: Half-quantization of a total optical angular momentum

Overview of attention for article published in Science Advances, April 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (89th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
40 news outlets
blogs
9 blogs
twitter
112 tweeters
facebook
14 Facebook pages
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
googleplus
19 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
35 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
198 Mendeley
Title
There are many ways to spin a photon: Half-quantization of a total optical angular momentum
Published in
Science Advances, April 2016
DOI 10.1126/sciadv.1501748
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kyle E. Ballantine, John F. Donegan, Paul R. Eastham

Abstract

The angular momentum of light plays an important role in many areas, from optical trapping to quantum information. In the usual three-dimensional setting, the angular momentum quantum numbers of the photon are integers, in units of the Planck constant ħ. We show that, in reduced dimensions, photons can have a half-integer total angular momentum. We identify a new form of total angular momentum, carried by beams of light, comprising an unequal mixture of spin and orbital contributions. We demonstrate the half-integer quantization of this total angular momentum using noise measurements. We conclude that for light, as is known for electrons, reduced dimensionality allows new forms of quantization.

Twitter Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 112 tweeters who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 198 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 3 2%
Canada 2 1%
Japan 2 1%
United Kingdom 2 1%
France 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Colombia 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Unknown 185 93%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 56 28%
Researcher 41 21%
Student > Master 19 10%
Professor 11 6%
Student > Bachelor 10 5%
Other 32 16%
Unknown 29 15%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Physics and Astronomy 118 60%
Engineering 21 11%
Chemistry 9 5%
Materials Science 5 3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 2%
Other 10 5%
Unknown 32 16%

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 490. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 December 2021.
All research outputs
#44,358
of 23,106,390 outputs
Outputs from Science Advances
#534
of 10,005 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#936
of 300,959 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Science Advances
#16
of 139 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,106,390 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,005 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 121.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 300,959 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 139 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.