Abstract

Optical singularities of index $I_u=\pm 1/2$ associated with lemon, monstar, and star topological structures in $\pi$-symmetric fields and singularities of index $I_c=\pm 1$ associated with radial, circulation (elliptic), spiral, node, and saddle structures in $2\pi$-symmetric vector fields are studied in detail here. The topological structures in the polarization ellipse orientation field, the Stokes field, and the Poynting vector field are derived from the same vector-vortex beam fields, and their interdependencies are explored using a designed experimental setup. We find that the inherently stable topological approach is much more informative for a deeper understanding of complex vector-vortex beam fields.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

Topological phase structure of vector vortex beams

C. E. R. Souza, J. A. O. Huguenin, and A. Z. Khoury
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 31(5) 1007-1012 (2014)

Topological structures in the Poynting vector field: an experimental realization

Vijay Kumar and Nirmal K. Viswanathan
Opt. Lett. 38(19) 3886-3889 (2013)

Polarization singular patterns in modal fields of few-mode optical fiber

C. Hari Krishna and Sourabh Roy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 37(9) 2688-2695 (2020)

Singular atom optics with spinor Bose–Einstein condensates

Azure Hansen, Justin T. Schultz, and Nicholas P. Bigelow
Optica 3(4) 355-361 (2016)

Perturbation-induced morphological transformations in vector-field singularities

Saba N. Khan, S. Deepa, Gauri Arora, and P. Senthilkumaran
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 37(6) 1577-1586 (2020)