Formation and morphological transformation of polarization singularities: Hunting the monstar

Abstract

The theoretical formalism and experimental measurements to form and transform between the three morphologies of the polarization singular patterns - star, lemon and monstar - are presented here. The monstar is statistically rare in isotropic random fields but its controllable realization is achieved by tuning the field anisotropy in three-beam interference. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.