The review describes general principles and characteristics of inhomogeneously polarized
paraxial optical fields and, especially, the polarization singularities (PSs). Main parameters …

Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams are typical vortex beams with orbital angular momentum
(OAM), spiral wavefront phase, and donut-shaped intensity distribution. They are widely …

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 …

Optical phase singularities are zeros of a scalar light field. The most systematically studied
class of singular fields is vortices: beams with helical wavefronts and a linear (1D) singularity …

Singularities are ubiquitous in nature and generate high levels of interest and activity among
scientists. At a singularity, a parameter of interest becomes indeterminate, a single point at …

Vector-vortex (VV) beams are of significant interest for various applications. There have
been substantial efforts toward developing a fast and efficient method for the …

Topological darkness is a new phenomenon that guarantees zero reflection/transmission of
light from an optical sample and hence provides topologically nontrivial phase singularities …

Electromagnetic (EM) skyrmions are an EM analogue of the skyrmions in condensed matter
physics, offering new degrees of freedom to structure light and manipulate light–matter …

Nonparaxial propagation of the vector vortex light beams in free space was investigated
theoretically. Propagation-induced polarization changes in vector light beams with different …

Of late, generation of different kinds of optical vortex lattices has been gaining much
attention due to various applications. Several methods have been reported for the …