Generation of two-dimensional chaotic vector fields from a surface-emitting semiconductor laser: analysis of vector singularities.

We demonstrate experimental generation of two-dimensional (2D) chaotic vector fields from a surface-emitting microcavity laser with precisely control of the operating temperature and the operating current. The 2D optical vector field is found to be formed by frequency locking of two linearly polarized laser modes with different chaotic spatial structures. The eigenfunction expansion method is used to reconstruct the experimental wave function for analyzing the properties of the vector singularities. It is shown that the distribution of vector singularities obeys the sign rule of nearest-neighbor singularities in the phase space of the vector field.