Optical vortices and vortex solitons

Abstract

Optical vortices are phase singularities in electromagnetic waves that constitute a unique and fascinating class of phenomena within the context of the physics of light. We present a brief overview of the recent advances in the study of optical vortices propagating in nonlinear media. We demonstrate that self-focusing nonlinearity leads, in general, to the azimuthal instability of a vortex-carrying beam, but it can support novel types of stable (or quasi-stable) self-trapped beams carrying nonzero angular momentum, such as vortex solitons, necklace beams, and soliton clusters. We also describe the properties of the discrete vortex solitons in periodic photonic lattices. Show more