Microscale vortex laser with controlled topological charge

A microscale vortex laser is a new type of coherent light source with small footprint that can directly generate vector vortex beams. However, a microscale laser with controlled topological charge, which is crucial for virtually any of its application, is still unrevealed. Here we present a microscale vortex laser with controlled topological charge. The vortex laser eigenmode was synthesized in a metamaterial engineered non-Hermitian micro-ring cavity system at exceptional point. We also show that the vortex laser cavity can operate at exceptional point stably to lase under optical pumping. The microscale vortex laser with controlled topological charge can serve as a unique and general building block for nextgeneration photonic integrated circuits and coherent vortex beam sources. The method we used here can be employed to generate lasing eigenmode with other complex functionalities.