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arXiv · 2208.09054

Topologically protected four-dimensional optical singularities

Christina M. Spaegele·Michele Tamagnone·Soon Wei Daniel Lim·Marcus Ossiander·Maryna L. Meretska·Federico Capasso
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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.

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Christina M. Spaegele, Michele Tamagnone, Soon Wei Daniel Lim, Marcus Ossiander, Maryna L. Meretska, Federico Capasso. 2022-08-18. Topologically protected four-dimensional optical singularities. https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09054

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