Twisted Rainbow Light and Nature‐Inspired Generation of Vector Vortex Beams (Laser Photonics Rev. 16(7)/2022)

Optical Vortices In article number 2200080, Petr Bouchal and Zdeněk Bouchal reveal the twist of rainbow light and demonstrate the spiral geometric phase in the rainbow arc. Experiments are based on the self‐correlation of light reflected from thousands of falling water drops. The results prove that the water drops naturally imitate the light control in nematic liquid crystals and Pancharatnam–Berry metasurfaces. Light shaping underlying the rainbow formation is used to generate vector vortices from glass microspheres, modulating both the geometric and dynamic phase of light.