Fig. 4: Polarization control of the branched flow of light.

a–c Measured profiles of the optical field with the linearly-polarized, quasi-plane-wave light incident: a polarization angle α = 0^∘, b α = 40^∘, and c α = 90^∘. The scale bar is 200 μm. The inset shows the linear polarization (y-z plane) angle α of the incident light with respect to the coordinate system. d Extracted scintillation index of the optical field versus the propagation distance (averaged over six realizations) with various polarization angles α. e Measured scintillation contrast and a theoretical fit with \({\cos }^{4}\alpha\) for various polarization angle α. The error bar represents the standard deviation. The thickness of the NLC film is 20 μm.