Vortices and defect statistics in two-dimensional optical chaos

We present the first direct experimental evidence of topological defects in nonlinear optics. For increasing Fresnel numbers F, the two-dimensional field is characterized by an increasing number of topological defects, from a single vortex, up to a large number of vortices with zero net topological charge. At variance with linear scattering from a fixed phase plate, here the defect pattern evolves in time according to the nonlinear dynamics. We assign the scaling exponents for the mean number of defects, their mean separation, and the charge unbalance as functions of F, as well as the correlation time of the defect pattern.