Abstract
Optical vortex beams are made to interact via degenerate two-wave mixing in a Kerr-like nonlinear medium. Vortex mixing is shown to occur inside the medium, leading to exchange of topological charge and cascaded generation of vortex beams. A mean-field model is developed and is shown to account for the selection rules of the topological charges observed after the wave-mixing process. Fractional charges are demonstrated to follow the same rules as for integer charges.
- Received 22 August 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.061801
©2011 American Physical Society