You are on page 1of 6

OPTICAL VORTICES:

Intensity distribution in an optical beam carrying a vortex (mesh) and its helical wave front (color surface).

folding and twisting waves of light


YURI S. KIVSHAR AND ELENA A. OSTROVSKAYA

OPTICAL VORTICES

n physics, wave propagation thin superconducting films, is traditionally analyzed by and surfaces of solids, as well as Optical vorticesphase singularities or phase means of regular solutions in models of interest to particle defects in electromagnetic wavesconstitute a of wave equations. These soluphysicists and cosmologists. It unique and fascinating class of phenomena within tions often possess singularities, is also believed that the study of the context of the physics of light, displaying a deep the points or lines in space at vortex generation under a rapid similarity to their close relatives, quantized vortices which mathematical quantities quench could shed new light on that describe physical properthe early stages of the evolution in superfluids and BoseEinstein condensates. ties of waves become infinite or of the universe. change abruptly.1 For example, The BoseEinstein condensate (BEC), a state of matter in at the point of phase singularity, the phase of the wave is undefined and wave singularities in optics,6 is now which a macroscopic number of particles emerging as a new discipline.7 share the same quantum state, constitutes wave intensity vanishes. Here, we summarize recent advances in a well-researched example of a superfluid Phase singularities are now recognized as important features common to all this exciting field associated with the study in which topological defects with a circuwaves. They were first discussed in depth of nonlinear effects that include frequency lating persistent current are observed. in a seminal paper by Nye and Berry.2 conversion, self-trapping of light, and vor- Nearly 75 years ago, Bose and Einstein introduced the idea of condensate of a dilute However, the earliest known scientific de- tex solitons.8 gas at temperatures close to absolute zero. scription of phase singularity was made in The BEC was experimentally created in the 1830's by Whewell, as discussed by Vortices: an overview Berry in Ref. 1. While Whewell studied the In a broad perspective, the study of opti- 1995 by the JILA group,10 who trapped ocean tides, he came to the extraordinary cal vortices brings to light similarities be- thousands (later, millions) of alkali 87Rb conclusion that rotary systems of tidal tween different and seemingly disparate atoms in a 10- m cloud and then cooled waves possess a singular point at which all fields of physics; the comparison of singu- them to a millionth of a degree above abcotidal lines meet and at which tide height larities of optical and other origins leads solute zero. The study of vortices with the vanishes. Waves that possess a phase sin- to theories that transcend the confines of BEC11 promises a deeper understanding of gularity and a rotational flow around the specific fields. Vortices play an important a possible link between the physics of susingular point are called vortices. They can role in many branches of physics, even perfluidity, condensation, and nonlinear be found in physical systems of different those not directly related to wave propaga- singular optics. nature and scale, ranging from water tion. An example is the KosterlitzThouwhirlpools and atmospheric tornadoes to less phase transition9 in solid-state physics Wave-front dislocations quantized vortices in superfluids and models, characterized by creation of tight- and optical vortices quantized lines of magnetic flux in super- ly bound pairs of pointlike vortices that re- To explain the physics of optical vortices, conductors. store the quasi-long-range order of a two- we recall that a light wave can be repreIn a light wave, the phase singularity dimensional model at low temperatures. sented by a complex scalar function forms an optical vortex: The wave rotates Such vortex-induced phase transitions can (e.g., an envelope of an electric field), around the vortex core in a given direc- be observed in superfluid helium films, which varies smoothly in space and/or tion; at the center, the velocity of this rotatime. Phase singularities of the wave function is infinite and the light intensity vantion appear at the points (or lines in ishes. The study of optical vortices and asspace) at which its modulus vanishes, i.e., sociated localized objects is extremely imwhen Re = Im = 0. Such points are reportant from the viewpoint of both funferred to as wave-front screw dislocations damental and applied physics. The or optical vortices, because the surface of unique, robust nature of vortex fields is constant phase structurally resembles a expected to lead to applications in areas screw dislocation in a crystal lattice, and that include optical data storage, distribubecause the phase gradient direction swirls tion, and processing. Another area in around the singular line much like fluid in which optical vortices could prove useful a whirlpool. Optical vortices are associated is in the establishment of free-space optiwith zeros in light intensity (black spots) cal interconnects between electronic chips and can be recognized by a specific helical 3 and boards. The ability to use light vorwave front. If the complex wave function tices to create robust, reconfigurable patis presented as, (r,t) = (r,t) exp[i (r,t)], terns of complex intensity in an optical in terms of its real modulus (r,t) and medium could aid laser cooling by optical phase (r,t), the dislocation strength (or 4 trapping of particles in a vortex field, and vortex topological charge) is defined by could enable light to be guided by the light Figure 1. Diagram of phase distribution around the circulation of the phase gradient itself, or in other words by the waveguides the core of a single-charge optical vortex. The around the singularity, S = (2 )-1 dr. created by optical vortices.5 It is not sur- black circles represent a contour plot of vortex in- The result is an integer because the phase prising that singular optics, the study of tensity. changes by a multiple of 2 (see Fig. 1). It

April 2001

Optics & Photonics News 27

OPTICAL VORTICES

also measures an orbital angular momentum of the vortex associated with the helical wave-front structure. If a light wave is characterized by an extra parameter, or, in other words, by wave polarization, its mathematical representation is no longer a scalar but a vector field. In vector fields, several types of line singularity exist; for example, those analogous to disclinations in liquid crystals, which could be edge type, screw type, or mixededge-screw type, that could move relative to background wave fronts and could interact in several different ways.6,7 In the linear theory of waves, each wave dislocation could be understood as a simple consequence of destructive wave interference.

Vortices in nonlinear media


A laser beam with a phase singularity generally has a doughnutlike shape and diffracts when it propagates in a free space. However, when the vortex-bearing beam propagates in a nonlinear medium, a variety of interesting effects can be observed. Nonlinear optical media are characterized by the electromagnetic response that depends on the strength of the propagating light. The polarization of such a medium can be described as P = 1E + 2E 2 + 3E 3, where E is the amplitude of the light wave's electric field, and the coefficients characterize both the linear and the nonlinear response of the medium. The 1 coefficient describes the linear refractive index of the medium. When 2 vanishes (as happens in the case of centrosymmetric media), the main nonlinear effect is produced by the third term that can be presented as an intensity-induced change of

the refractive index proportional to 3E 2. An important consequence of such intensity-dependent nonlinearity is the spontaneous focusing of a beam that is due to the lensing property of a self-focusing ( 3 > 0) medium. This focusing action of a nonlinear medium can precisely balance the diffraction of a laser beam, resulting in the creation of optical solitons, which are self-trapped light beams that do not change shape during propagation.8 A stable bright spatial soliton is radially symmetric and has no nodes in its intensity profile. If, however, a beam with elaborate geometry carries a topological charge and propagates in a self-focusing nonlinear medium, it decays into a number of bright spatial solitons. The resulting field distribution does not preserve the radial symmetry. Figure 2 shows the experimental data obtained at the Laser Physics Centre of the Australian National University, in which a doughnut-shaped beam with a single topological charge S = +1 propagates in a Rb-vapor nonlinear medium. The vortex beam decays into a pair of outof-phase solitons that repel and twist around one another as they propagate.12 The rotation is due to the angular momentum of the vortex transferred to the soliton pair. Remarkably, the behavior of a laser beam in a self-defocusing nonlinear medium ( 3 < 0) is distinctly different. Such a medium cannot produce a lensing effect and therefore cannot support bright solitons. Nevertheless, a negative change of the refractive index can compensate for a spreading dip in light intensity, thus creating a dark soliton,8 a self-trapped, local-

Figure 2.Top: simulation of the break-up of a single-charge optical vortex in a self-focusing saturable nonlinear material.The frames show the effect of increasing nonlinearity on the beam at the output of the material. Note that the vortex beam breaks into a pair of off-axis solitons which then repel and rotate. Bottom: experimental results showing remarkable agreement with the numerical simulations.

ized low-intensity state (a dark hole) in a uniformly illuminated background. Figures 3(a) and 3(b) show the formation of a dark-soliton stripe created by a -phase mask in a defocusing medium when selftrapping occurs in the transverse dimension only. The stripe presents an edge dislocation that is however unstable against transverse modulations. It subsequently decays into localized dark spots or optical vortex solitons [see Figs. 3(c)-3(f)], as reported by Tikhonenko et al.13 and in a recent review paper.14 These dark spots appear in pairs inasmuch as each is associated with a helical phase distribution and two adjoined vortices carry opposite topological charges. Similar effects of the stripe break-up and generation of optical vortex solitons can also be observed as a result of the interaction of the stripe with a different optical vortex.15 The presence of a vortex induces a phase shift in the stripe proportional to the vortex topological charge S that initiates the stripe's transverse instability and subsequent break-up. In its linear limit, this phenomenon is analogous to the spirallike distortion of the lines with constant phase caused by interaction of a wave packet with the magnetic vector po-

28 Optics & Photonics News

April 2001

OPTICAL VORTICES

tential, the famous AharonovBohm effect in mesoscopic physics. Vortices of single and multiple topological charges can be created in both linear and nonlinear media by use of computer-generated holograms.7,8 Propagating through a nonlinear self-defocusing medium, such as a vortex-carrying beam, creates a self-trapped state, a vortex soliton. Vortex solitons have been observed experimentally in different materials with selfdefocusing nonlinearity, such as slightly absorbent liquids, vapors of alkali metals, and photorefractive crystals.16

(a)

(b)

(c)

Parametric topology conversion


A stable optical vortex that propagates in a linear or nonlinear medium usually retains its topological charge or orbital angular momentum as well as its helical wave-front structure. However, certain nonlinear wave interactions in optical media make it possible to transform properties of the vortex field in a controlled manner. The most interesting transformations of this kind occur in optical parametric processes, in which, under appropriate conditions imposed on the wave vector of the pump and signal beams (phasematching conditions), multiple new frequencies can be generated from a single input beam. Depending on the frequency of the output wave, parametric processes can be either the upconversion (sum-frequency generation) type or the downconversion (fractional frequency generation) type. One of the simplest parametric upconversion processes is second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a noncentrosymmetric medium with quadratic nonlinearity ( 2 0). In an experiment first conducted by Basistiy and colleagues,17 a singular fundamental wave with a helical wave front (a vortex) generated a second-harmonic (SH) beam with a double-helix wave front, automatically doubling both its frequency and its topological charge, S2 = 2S . The transformation of the vortex topology is caused by the conservation of the total orbital angular momentum of the coupled harmonic beams in the sumfrequency generation processes.18 In general, if two input vortices have different charges of S1 and S2 , the sum-frequency vortex will have a combined charge of S1+S2. However, there is still debate over what happens to a vortex in parametric downconversion processes such as, for ex-

(d)

ample, degenerate half-frequency conversion. There is also debate over whether the conservation law of angular momentum is universal. Parametric instabilities make it difficult to observe vortices in parametric processes. In the SHG process with a singular fundamental-frequency beam, for example, a low-intensity SH beam possesses the doughnutlike shape of the input beam. At higher intensities, however, the effective cascade nonlinearity of the medium acts as a self-focusing cubic nonlinearity, and both input and output vortex beams undergo azimuthal instability, subsequently breaking up into a set of bright spatial solitons.19 Even in the event that the nonlinearity effectively defocuses in the cascading limit, strong parametric instability of the two-frequency beams that carry phase singularities poses a serious obstacle to experimental observations. A successful experimental demonstration of a stable, localized two-component optical vortex was recently reported by Di Trapani et al.20 The researchers used the combined effect of transverse walk-off and finite beam size to eliminate parametric instability and to allow observation of stable structures with angular momentum in optical wave mixing.

Vortex or dipole?
(e)

(f)

Figure 3. Output beam intensity profiles demonstrating the instability of a dark-soliton stripe with the growing input intensity in the experiments with the Rb vapor. The vapor concentration increases from small in (a) to the order of 1013 cm-3 in (f).

In a nonlinear regime, self-trapped optical vortices exist on a broad background beam (in a self-defocusing medium) or decay because of azimuthal instability (in a self-focusing medium). Stabilization of a beam with a finite extension carrying an angular momentum could occur if the optical vortex were to copropagate with a bright soliton in a self-focusing nonlinear medium. Through a nonlinear change of the medium refractive index, the soliton beam creates an effective waveguide that can trap and guide a copropagating beam. As follows from the linear waveguide theory, which is applicable when a trapped beam is weak, guided modes of different shapes can be trapped by such a solitoninduced radially symmetric waveguide. However, as the intensity of the trapped beam grows, the guided mode can no longer be considered linear, affecting the waveguide itself because of nonlinear interaction with the soliton beam. As a result, both beams form a composite (or vector) soliton with mutually trapped components of a complex shape. The exis-

April 2001

Optics & Photonics News 29

OPTICAL VORTICES

the recent discovery of a rich variety of exotic topological defects in unconventional superfluids (such as 3He-A) and superconductors points to the likelihood that deep analogies exist between vortices in complex superfluids and multifrequency light waves. Recent theoretical analysis23 of twocolor parametric optical vortices has demonstrated that such vortices possess unexpected properties that make them even more exotic than quantized vortices in unconventional superfluids.

Acknowledgments
We thank many of our colleagues for their collaboration and useful discussions, most especially Barry Luther-Davies, Mordechai Segev, Marat Soskin, Lluis Torner, Paolo Di Trapani, and Vladimir Tikhonenko for sharing their knowledge with us and for their constant support. This research was supported by the Performance and Planning Fund and the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre.

References
1. M. Berry, "Making waves in physics," Nature (London) 403, 21 (2000). 2. J.F. Nye and M.V. Berry, "Dislocations in wave trains," Proc. R. Soc. London Sect.A 336, 165-90 (1974). 3. J. Scheuer and M. Orenstein, "Optical vortices crystals: Spontaneous generation in nonlinear semiconductor microcavities," Science 285, 230-3 (1999); see also the special feature in Photon.Technol. News, No. 11, 1999 (www.photonics.com). 4. K.T. Gahagan and G.A. Swartzlander, "Simultaneous trapping of low-index and high-index microparticles observed with an optical-vortex trap,'' J.Opt. Soc. Am. B 16, 533-7 (1999). 5. See, for example,A.G.Truscott, M. E. J. Friese, N. R. Heckenberg, and H. Rubinsztein-Dunlop,"Optically written waveguide in an atomic vapor,"Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1438-41 (1999); C.T. Law, X. Zhang, and G.A. Swartzlander, "Waveguiding properties of optical vortex solitons," Opt. Lett. 25, 55-7 (2000). 6. J. F. Nye, Natural Focusing and Fine Structure of Light: Caustics and Wave Dislocations (Author: is this the name of a book published by the IOP?) (Institute of Optics, Bristol, England, 1999); M.Vasnetsov and K. Staliunas, eds., Optical vortices (Nova, New York, 1999). 7. M. Soskin and M.Vasnetsov, "Singular optics as a new chapter of modern photonics," Photonics Sci. News 4, 22-42 (1999). 8. Y.S. Kivshar and B. Luther-Davies, "Optical dark solitons: physics and applications," Phys. Rep. 298, 81197 (1998). 9. J.M. Kosterlitz and D.J.Thouless, "Ordering, metastability and phase transitions in two-dimensional systems," J. Phys. C 6, 1181-203 (1973). 10. M. H.Anderson, J. R. Ensher, M. R. Matthews, C. E. Wieman, and E.A. Cornell, "Observation of BoseEinstein condensation in a dilute atomic vapor," Science 269, 198-201 (1995). 11. J. E.Williams and M. J. Holland, "Preparing topological states of a Bose-Einstein condensate," Nature (London) 401, 568-72 (1999); M.R. Matthews, B. P. Anderson, P. C. Haljan, D. S. Hall, C. E.Wieman, and E.A. Cornell, "Vortices in BoseEinstein condensate," Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2498-501 (1999). 12. V.Tikhonenko, J. Christou, and B. Luther-Davies, "Spiraling bright spatial solitons formed by the

Figure 4. Left: intensity components of a composite vortex-mode soliton in a self-focusing medium (the second beam carries a vortex). Right: intensity components of a composite dipole-mode soliton.

tence of such composite soliton structures that carry an angular momentum (the spin of the beam) would allow observation of an optical version of the spin-orbital interaction of light waves.21 Two examples of such composite solitons are shown in Fig. 4. The first features a component with the doughnut-shaped structure characteristic of the Laguerre Gaussian (LG01) vortexlike mode of a linear radially symmetric optical waveguide, which carries an angular momentum.21 The second type of vector soliton originates from use of a soliton-induced waveguide to trap a dipolelike Hermite-Gaussian (HG01) mode.22 The two lobes of the dipole-mode component have a relative phase difference of . Contrary to what might have been assumed before publication of the most recent research on this topic,22 the radially asymmetric dipolemode soliton is more stable than the radially symmetric vortex-mode soliton. The latter, in fact, undergoes a nontrivial symmetry-breaking instability and transforms into a rotating dipolelike structure that resembles two spiraling solitons. This rotation is caused by the angular momentum imparted by the decaying vortex mode to
30 Optics & Photonics News
April 2001

its residuals. In contrast to its unstable counterpart, a dipole-mode soliton is a robustalbeit complexobject that can be likened to a molecule of light. It can preserve its structural integrity in collisions with other molecules and atoms and with scalar soliton beams, or can display more complicated dynamics that involve the excitation of the molecular degrees of freedom.

Conclusion
We have presented an overview of exciting research in the field of nonlinear singular optics. It is clear that understanding and controlling the properties of optical vortices could lead to numerous applications in the future, ranging from optical communications and data storage to the trapping, control, and manipulation of particles and cold atoms. Indeed, optical vortices provide an efficient way to control light by creating reconfigurable waveguides in bulk media. The study of phase singularities in optical parametric processes not only suggests new directions of fundamental research in optics but also provides links to other branches of physics. For example,

OPTICAL VORTICES

13.

14.

15.

16.

17. 18.

19.

breakup of an optical vortex in a saturable self-focusing medium," J. Opt. Soc.Am B 12, 2046-53 (1995). V.Tikhonenko, J. Christou, B. Luther-Davies, and Y. S. Kivshar, "Observation of vortex solitons created by the instability of dark soliton stripes," Opt. Lett. 21, 1129-31 (1996). Y. S. Kivshar and D. E. Pelinovsky, "Self-focusing and transverse instabilities of solitary waves," Phys. Rep. 331, 117-95 (2000). Y. S. Kivshar,A. Nepomnyashehy,V.Tikhonenko, J. Christou, and B. Luther-Davies, "Vortex-stripe soliton interaction," Opt. Lett. 25, 123-5 (2000). See, for example, G.A. Swartzlander and C.T. Law, "Optical vortex solitons observed in Kerr nonlinear media," Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2503-6 (1992);A.V. Mamaev, M. Saffman, and A.A. Zozulya, "Vortex evolution and bound pair formation in anisotropic nonlinear optical media," Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4544-7 (1996); Z. Chen, M. Segev, D.W.Wilson, R. E. Muller, and P. D. Maker,"Self-trapping of an optical vortex by use of the bulk photovoltaic effect," Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2948-51 (1995). I.V. Basistiy et al., "Optics of light beams with screw dislocations," Opt. Commun. 103, 422-8 (1993). K. Dholakia, N. B. Simpson, M. J. Padgett, and L.Allen, "Second-harmonic generation and the orbital angular momentum of light," Phys. Rev.A 54, R3742-5 (1996). L.Torner and D.V. Petrov, "Splitting of light beams with spiral phase dislocations into solitons in bulk quadratic nonlinear media," J. Opt. Soc.Am B 14, 2017-23 (1997); D.V. Petrov, L.Torner, J. Martorell, R.

20.

21.

22.

23.

Vilaseca, J. P.Torres, and C.Cojocaru, "Observation of azimuthal modulational instability and formation of patterns of optical solitons in a quadratic nonlinear crystal," Opt. Lett. 23, 1444-6 (1998). P. Di Trapani,W. Chinaglia, S. Minardi,A. Piskarskas, and G.Valiulis,"Observation of quadratic optical vortex solitons," Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3843-6 (2000). Z.H. Musslimani, M. Segev, D. N. Christodoulides, and M. Solja i , "Composite multihump vector solicc tons carrying topological charge," Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1164-7 (2000); J.N. Malmberg,A. H. Carlsson, D. anderson, M. Lisak, E.A. Ostrovskaya, and Y. S. Kivshar, "Vector solitons in (2+1) dimensions," Opt. Lett. 25, 643-5 (2000). J. J. Garcia-Ripoll,V. M. Perez-Garcia, E.A. Ostrovskaya, and Y. S. Kivshar, "Dipole-mode vector solitons," Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 82-5 (2000);W. Krolikowski, E.A. Ostrovskaya, C.Weilnau, M. Geisser, G. McCarthy,Y. S. Kivshar, C. Denz, and B. Luther-Davies, "Observation of dipole-mode vector solitons," Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1424-7 (2000). T. J.Alexander,Y. S. Kivshar,A.V. Buryak, and R.A. Sammut, "Optical vortex solitons in parametric wave mixing," Phys. Rev. E 61, 2042-9 (2000).

Yuri S. Kivshar and Elena A. Ostrovskaya are with the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. They can be reached by e-mail at ysk124@rsphysse.anu.edu.au

April 2001

Optics & Photonics News 31

You might also like