Laser light exiting a sodium vapor cell as the power (a) and frequency (b & c) are varied; c is at lower power and higher density than b. The laser beam undergoes filamentation as it passes through the vapor and breaks up into the beams shown on the left in the figures; in the far field, these beams' diffraction patterns superimpose to form the hexagonal patterns on the right.
From the article:
Honeycomb Pattern Formation by Laser-Beam Filamentation in Atomic Sodium VaporRyan S. Bennink, Vincent Wong, Alberto M. Marino, David L. Aronstein, Robert W. Boyd, C. R. Stroud, Jr., Svetlana Lukishova, and Daniel J. Gauthier
Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 113901 (2002)
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