ABSTRACT
We have noted time and again that rst-order optical vortices aregeneric features of waveelds, that is, that these vortices are the typical phase singularities that appear in an “unprepared” optical system. However, most of the examples and applications considered up to this point have been systems deliberately designed to produce a particular vortex state. An examination of the natural creation and evolution of vortices in waveelds is still lacking.
