When light is transmitted through optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic media the spatial distribution of light can be modified according to its input polarization state. A complete analysis of this process, based on the paraxial approximation, is presented, and we show how it can be exploited to produce a spin-controlled change in the orbital angular momentum of light beams propagating in pa...

We begin with a review of the basic concepts involved in the quantum mechanical description of physical systems and the notation we will use in the lectures. The notes in this Section are not intended to provide an introductory course on Quantum Mechanics. They assume the reader has had at least a first course at undergraduate physics level that covers some historical background and reviews the...