Laser light can contain intricate, beautiful fractals
Despite their simplicity, certain lasers can create the complex patterns
Fractals commonly show up in nature, from spiral-shaped seashells to heads of cauliflower. Now physicists have found these complex, self-repeating patterns in a very unnatural spot: laser light.
Peer closely at a small section of a fractal, and it looks just like the whole. About 20 years ago, researchers predicted that this type of pattern could appear in light from certain types of lasers. But no one had seen those patterns until now, scientists report in a study published January 25 in Physical Review A.