Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Links and knots are exotic topological structures that have garnered significant interest across multiple branches of natural sciences. Coherent links and knots, such as those constructed by phase or polarization singularities of coherent light, have been observed in various three-dimensional optical settings. However, incoherent links and knots-knotted or connected lines of coherence singularities-arise from a fundamentally different concept. They are "hidden" in the statistic properties of a randomly fluctuating field, making their presence often elusive or undetectable. Here, we theoretically construct and experimentally demonstrate such topological entities of incoherent light. By leveraging a state-of-the-art incoherent modal-decomposition scheme, we unveil incoherent topological structures from fluctuating light speckles, including Hopf links and Trefoil knots of coherence singularities that are robust against coherence and intensity fluctuations. Our work is applicable to diverse wave systems where incoherence or practical coherence is prevalent, and may pave the way for design and implementation of statistically-shaped topological structures for various applications such as high-dimensional optical information encoding and optical communications.
Source: Light Science & Applications
Authors: Zhuoyi Wang, Xingyuan Lu, Zhigang Chen, Yangjian Cai, Chengliang Zhao
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,190
OpenAlex ID: W4409850193