Controllable splitting and bidirectional rotating of optical vortices due to cross phase

Abstract

We discussed evolution characteristics of optical vortices with the cross phase in free space and found that both splitting and rotating can occur for vortices with circular symmetry due to cross phase. The rotation is bidirectional and the rotational direction will reverse at some certain distance. The physical mechanism behind the splitting and rotating of vortices is considered to be the effective anisotropic diffraction, which results from the cross phase. We also investigated the dynamics of superimposed pattern with two astigmatic vortices of opposite cross phase. The rotating of vortices always happens, however, the splitting only occurs for nonzero net cross phase coefficient. The results in the paper provide us with a theoretical method to control the dynamics of vortices by adjusting the cross phase, then may find potential applications in the field of optical tweezers.

Keywords:

• Orbital angular momentum
• optical vortices
• cross phase
• optical tweezers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 12004238), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (grant number 2018A0303130232) and the Open Subject of the Key Laboratory of Weak Light Nonlinear Photonics of Nankai University (grant number OS 21-3).