Umbilic point screening in random optical fields

Isaac Freund, Roman I. Egorov, Marat S. Soskin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Umbilic points-singular points of curvature characterized by a fractional topological charge q = ±1/2 - are the most numerous of all special points in the landscape of random optical fields (speckle patterns), outnum-bering maxima, minima, saddle points, and optical vortices. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first experimental evidence that positive and negative umbilic points screen one another. Theory predicts that in the absence of screening the charge variance in a bounded region is proportional to the area of the region, whereas in the presence of screening the variance is drastically reduced and is proportional to the perimeter. Our data confirm this latter prediction and provide the first estimates of the screening lengths for umbilic points of the intensity and of the amplitude (field modulus).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2182-2184
Number of pages3
JournalOptics Letters
Volume32
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2007

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Umbilic point screening in random optical fields'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this