Turbulent dynamics in two-dimensional paraxial fluid of light

TL;DR

This paper explores quantum turbulence in a novel optical system, revealing isotropic momentum space, scaling laws, and vortex structures through detailed temporal and spectral analysis of light fields.

Contribution

It introduces a new optical platform for quantum turbulence studies, enabling detailed characterization of vortex dynamics and energy spectra not previously accessible.

Findings

Emergence of isotropy in momentum space

Observation of distinct scaling laws in energy spectrum

Identification of vortex clustering and internal structure

Abstract

Turbulence in quantum fluids has, surprisingly, a lot in common with its classical counterpart. Recently, cold atomic gases has emerged as a well controlled experimental platform to study turbulent dynamics. In this work, we introduce a novel system to study quantum turbulence in optics, with the major advantage of having access to a wide range of characterization tools available for light fields. In particular we report the temporal dynamics of density and phase and we show the emergence of isotropy in momentum space and the presence of different scaling laws in the incompressible kinetic energy spectrum. The microscopic origin of the algebraic exponents in the energy spectrum is discussed by studying the internal structure of quantized vortices within the healing length and their clustering at larger length scales. These results are obtained using two counter-streaming fluids of light, which allows for a precise preparation of the initial state and the in-situ measurement of the compressible and incompressible fluid velocity.