IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-52529-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Observation of the topological aberrations of twisted light

Author

Listed:
  • Rafael F. Barros

    (Physics Unit
    Universidade de São Paulo)

  • Subhajit Bej

    (Physics Unit)

  • Markus Hiekkamäki

    (Physics Unit)

  • Marco Ornigotti

    (Physics Unit)

  • Robert Fickler

    (Physics Unit)

Abstract

When reflected from an interface, a laser beam generally drifts and tilts away from the path predicted by ray optics, an intriguing consequence of its finite transverse extent. For twisted light, such beam shifts manifest even more dramatically: upon reflection, a field containing a high-order optical vortex is expected to experience not only geometrical shifts, but an additional splitting of its high-order vortex into a constellation of unit-charge vortices, a phenomenon known as topological aberration. In this article, we report on the experimental observation of the topological aberration effect, verified through the deformation of vortex constellations upon reflection. We develop a general theoretical framework to study topological aberrations in terms of the elementary symmetric polynomials of the coordinates of a vortex constellation, a mathematical abstraction which we prove to be the physical quantity of practical interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael F. Barros & Subhajit Bej & Markus Hiekkamäki & Marco Ornigotti & Robert Fickler, 2024. "Observation of the topological aberrations of twisted light," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-52529-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52529-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52529-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-52529-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Aharon-Steinberg & T. Völkl & A. Kaplan & A. K. Pariari & I. Roy & T. Holder & Y. Wolf & A. Y. Meltzer & Y. Myasoedov & M. E. Huber & B. Yan & G. Falkovich & L. S. Levitov & M. Hücker & E. Zeldov, 2022. "Direct observation of vortices in an electron fluid," Nature, Nature, vol. 607(7917), pages 74-80, July.
    2. D. A. Butts & D. S. Rokhsar, 1999. "Predicted signatures of rotating Bose–Einstein condensates," Nature, Nature, vol. 397(6717), pages 327-329, January.
    3. Jonathan Leach & Mark R. Dennis & Johannes Courtial & Miles J. Padgett, 2004. "Knotted threads of darkness," Nature, Nature, vol. 432(7014), pages 165-165, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiang, Xunda & Zeng, Yue & Ji, Yikai & Liu, Bin & Qin, Xizhou & Li, Yongyao, 2022. "Vortex formation and quench dynamics of rotating quantum droplets," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Yotam Wolf & Amit Aharon-Steinberg & Binghai Yan & Tobias Holder, 2023. "Para-hydrodynamics from weak surface scattering in ultraclean thin flakes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-52529-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.