Topologically protected four-dimensional optical singularities
Abstract
Optical singularities play a major role in modern optics and are frequently deployed in structured light, super-resolution microscopy, and holography. While phase singularities are uniquely defined as locations of undefined phase, polarization singularities studied thus far are either partial, i.e., bright points of well-defined polarization, or unstable for small field perturbations. We demonstrate for the first time a complete, topologically protected polarization singularity; it is located in the 4D space spanned by the three spatial dimensions and the wavelength and is created in the focus of a cascaded metasurface-lens system. The field Jacobian plays a key role in the design of such higher-dimensional singularities, which can be extended to multidimensional wave phenomena, and pave the way to novel applications in topological photonics and precision sensing.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2208.09054,
title = {Topologically protected four-dimensional optical singularities},
author = {Christina M. Spaegele and Michele Tamagnone and Soon Wei Daniel Lim and Marcus Ossiander and Maryna L. Meretska and Federico Capasso},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.09054},
year = {2022}
}