Abstract

In nonparaxial vector optical fields, the following topological events are shown to occur in apparent violation of charge conservation: as one translates the observation plane along a line of circular polarization (a $C$ line), the points on the line ($C$ points) are seen to change not only the signs of their topological charges, but also their handedness, and, at turning points on the line, paired $C$ points with the same topological charge and opposite handedness are seen to nucleate. These counter-intuitive events cannot occur in paraxial fields.

© 2017 Optical Society of America

Indices of polarization Möbius strips surrounding lines of circular polarization in nonparaxial optical fields

K. S. Grigoriev and V. A. Makarov
Opt. Lett. 48(16) 4420-4423 (2023)

Topological structures in vector speckle fields

Vijay Kumar, Bruno Piccirillo, Salla Gangi Reddy, and R. P. Singh
Opt. Lett. 42(3) 466-469 (2017)

Observer-dependent sign inversions of polarization singularities

Isaac Freund
Opt. Lett. 39(20) 5873-5876 (2014)

Transmission of fractional topological charges via circular arrays of anisotropic fibers

C. N. Alexeyev, A. O. Kovalyova, A. F. Rubass, A. V. Volyar, and M. A. Yavorsky
Opt. Lett. 42(4) 783-786 (2017)

Measurement of the topological charge and index of vortex vector optical fields with a space-variant half-wave plate

Gui-Geng Liu, Ke Wang, Yun-Han Lee, Dan Wang, Ping-Ping Li, Fangwang Gou, Yongnan Li, Chenghou Tu, Shin-Tson Wu, and Hui-Tian Wang
Opt. Lett. 43(4) 823-826 (2018)