The spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) can be observed by the dark strip resulting from weak measurement. We find that the SHEL of a partially coherent beam (PCB) has a similar phenomenon as well. However, the dark strip in the SHEL of a PCB cannot be explained by considering the beam as an assemblance of coherent speckles. Also, the dark strip in a PCB is not purely dark. By analyzing the autocorrelation, we show that the SHEL of a PCB is the result of overlapping coherent speckles’ SHEL. We further prove our conclusion by adjusting convergence and incident angles. Finally, we develop a qualitative theory to clarify the SHEL of a PCB.

In this Letter, a method for detecting the focused beam waist of lasers is proposed by using weak measurements based on the so-called weak-value amplification. We establish a propagation model to describe the quantitative relation between the beam waist and the amplified shift of the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL), which is sensitive to the variation of the beam waist. We experimentally measure the amplified shift corresponding to a different beam waist and the experimental data agrees well with theoretical calculation. These results confirm the rationality and feasibility of our method.