Recent research highlight: Nonlinear vortex dynamics in light

We observe and measure the nonequilibrium dynamics of optical vortices as a function of propagation distance through a nonlinear medium. Our experiments are performed with a variable-length nonlinear medium: a nonlinear fluid in a tank with an output window on a translating tube. For the first time, we observed “vortex core sharpening”: where the infinite width of a linear core subsequently shrinks and approaches the healing length of the nonlinear optical fluid. See the paper in Physics of Fluids