Abstract: Imprinting optical polarisation vortices in atom spin textures - now in 3D

Polarisation - while invisible to the eye - has been recognized as an important feature of light since the days of Ptolemy. Over the last decades we have gained significant control in designing spatially varying polarisation structures. Electric dipole transitions are sensitive to optical polarisation, allowing us to interrogate topologies of structured light via their interaction with matter.  Very recently we have demonstrated that spectroscopy with strongly focused vector light allows us to sense the illusive longitudinal polarisation component of light, and to visualise 3D polarisation textures.