Experimental Observation of the Imbert-Fedorov Transverse Displacement after a Single Total Reflection

We describe a simple experimental setup with which to observe the transverse shift - also known as the Imbert-Fedorov effect - that circularly or elliptically polarized optical beams undergo after a single total internal reflection on a dielectric plane. A comparison between a theoretical model based on the conservation of energy and experimental measurements shows good agreement simultaneously for longitudinal (Goos-Hänchen) and transverse (Imbert-Fedorov) displacements.