Topological structures in the Poynting vector field: an experimental realization

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Experimental measurements of the nonplanar phase of scalar optical beams is achieved using polarization singularities and Stokes parameters. The product of beam intensity and its phase gradient is calculated to get the Poynting vector distribution in the beam cross section. Using these we propose a scheme and experimentally obtain generic fundamental spiral, node, and saddle topological structures in the Poynting vector field.