  The photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) is generally believed to be a result of
an effective spin-orbit coupling, which describes the mutual influence of the
spin (polarization) and the trajectory of the light beam. The photonic SHE
holds great potential for precision metrology owing to the fact that the
spin-dependent splitting in photonic SHE are sensitive to the physical
parameter variations of different systems. Remarkably, using the weak
measurements, this tiny spin-dependent shifts can be detected with the
desirable accuracy so that the corresponding physical parameters can be
determined. Here, we will review some of our works on using photonic SHE for
precision metrology, such as measuring the thickness of nanometal film,
identifying the graphene layers, detecting the strength of axion coupling in
topological insulators, and determining the magneto-optical constant of
magnetic film.

Optics