In a study published in Nature Communications, collaborating physicists from Singapore and the UK have reported an optical analog of the Kármán vortex street (KVS). This optical KVS pulse reveals fascinating parallels between fluid transport and energy flow of structured light.
In a study published in Nature Communications, collaborating physicists from Singapore and the UK have reported an optical analog of the Kármán vortex street (KVS). This optical KVS pulse reveals fascinating parallels between fluid transport and energy flow of structured light.
Yijie Shen, study lead author from Nanyang Technological University, says, « We introduce a type of light pulse which field structure has an intriguing similarity with a von Kármán vortex street, a pattern of swirling vortices observed in fluid and gas dynamics that is responsible for the ‘singing’ of suspended telephone lines in wind. The structured light exhibits robust topological structure of skyrmions in condenser matter.
« In sharp contrast to earlier work on optical skyrmionic beams and pulses, the skyrmionic field configuration in nondiffracting supertoroidal pulses (NDSTPs) is not limited by diffraction and persists upon propagation over arbitrary distances.
