Observation of an exceptional point in a chaotic optical microcavity

We present spectroscopic observation of an exceptional point or the transition point between diabatic crossing and avoided crossing of neighboring quasi-eigenmodes in a chaotic optical microcavity with a large size parameter. The transition to the avoided crossing was impeded until the degree of deformation exceeded a threshold deformation owing to the system's openness also enhanced by the shape deformation. As a result, a singular topology was observed around the exceptional point on the eigenfrequency surfaces, resulting in fundamental inconsistency in mode labeling.