  A new physical mechanism to achieve spin-to-orbital angular momentum
conversion based on the interaction of an intense circularly polarized (CP)
laser beam with a plane foil is presented and studied for the first time. It
has been verified by both simulation and theoretical analysis that vortex
harmonics carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) are generated after a
relativistic CP laser beam, even a Gaussian beam, impinges normally on a plane
foil. The generation of this vortex harmonics is attributed to the vortex
oscillation of the plasma surface driven harmonically by the vortex
longitudinal electric field of the CP beam. During the process of harmonic
generation, the spin angular momenta of fundamental-frequency photons are
converted to OAM of harmonic photon because of the conservation of total
angular momentum. In addition, if an initially vortex beam or a spiral phase
plate is used, the OAM of harmonic photon can be more tunable and controllable.
