Persistence and Lifelong Fidelity of Phase Singularities in Optical Random Waves

Phase singularities are locations where light is twisted like a corkscrew, with positive or negative topological charge depending on the twisting direction. Among the multitude of singularities arising in random wave fields, some can be found at the same location, but only when they exhibit opposite topological charge, which results in their...

The dating game at dimension zero: creation and annihilation of phase singularities in optical random waves

Phase singularities can be created and annihilated, but always in pairs. With optical near-field measurements, we track singularities in random waves as a function of wavelength, and discover correlations between creation and annihilation events.