Observation of Vectorial Phase Singularities at Zero-Eigenvalue Exceptional Points.

Authors

Zijin Yang, Haoye Qin, Xinyue Gao, Heng Wei, Fulong Shi, Xinyang Mu, Jiaxin Chen, Chengzhi Zhang, Huibin Yang, Yuzhi Shi, Bo Li, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Qinghua Song

Published in

Physical review letters. Volume 137. Issue 13. Pages 136601. Sep 25, 2026.

Abstract

Exceptional points in non-Hermitian photonics provide singular responses for topological light-field control. Yet, converting such singular responses into coupled control over multiple optical degrees of freedom remains a central challenge. Here, based on a plasmonic non-Hermitian metasurface described by a reflection Jones matrix, we theoretically and experimentally reveal the parameter-space topology associated with zero-eigenvalue exceptional points. In this regime, zero-eigenvalue degeneracy preserves the singular topological features of non-Hermitian systems while elevating controllability from scalar phase modulation to coupled control of both phase and polarization, manifested as vectorial phase singularities. As a proof of concept, we implemented precise local structural tuning in a plasmonic non-Hermitian metasurface to achieve simultaneous alignment of reflection-coefficient zeros across multiple polarization channels and observed the radial collapse of scaled eigenstates on the Bloch sphere. Based on such vectorial phase singularities, we experimentally synthesized polarization-phase composite vortices, opening new avenues for high-dimensional light-field manipulation, vector holography, and topological photonic device design.

PMID:
42854148
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Oct 2026.

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