Weak measurement is an effective technique for detecting the photonic spin Hall effect (SHE), but its performance is limited under strong coupling conditions or when the preselected and postselected states are nearly orthogonal. While modified weak measurements have been proposed to address these issues, the formation mechanism of the amplified displacements remains unclear, potentially impacting practical reliability. Therefore, exploring alternative methods for detecting the photonic SHE to compensate for the shortcomings of existing techniques is significant. In this paper, we develop a differential interference method to detect the photonic SHE. By leveraging differential interference, we reestablish the relationship between spin-dependent displacements and amplified displacements and elucidate the formation mechanism of the amplified displacements. We find that the measurement procedure using preselected and postselected ensembles is still effective. We compare the theoretical models of differential interference, conventional weak measurements, and modified weak measurements. We show that the experimental results coincide with the predictions of the differential interference theory. Due to the amplification effect of differential interference, the measurement resolution reaches ${10}^{-7}$ rad at small incidence angles, outperforming conventional polarimeters. Our method offers an alternative to weak measurement techniques for detecting the photonic SHE and holds promise for precision measurement.

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• Angular momentum of light
• Interference & diffraction of light
• Polarization of light
• Spin Hall effect
• Topological effects in photonic systems
• Metamaterials
• Precision measurements
• Weak measurements