Engineering spin-orbit synthetic Hamiltonians in liquid-crystal optical cavities

Inducing optical spin-orbit coupling The coupling of the spin-orbit interactions in solid-state systems can give rise to a wide range of exotic electronic transport effects. But solid-state systems tend to be somewhat limited in their flexibility because the spin-orbit coupling is fixed. By contrast, optical systems have recently been shown to mimic complex solid-state systems, with flexibility in design providing the ability to control and manipulate the system properties. Using a liquid crystal–filled photonic cavity, Rechcińska et al. emulated an artificial Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in a photonic system and showed control of an artificial Zeeman splitting. The results illustrate a powerful approach of engineering synthetic Hamiltonians with photons for the simulation of nontrivial condensed matter and quantum phenomena. Science , this issue p. 727