Rotating optical vortex clusters in competing cubic-quintic media

We put forward a rich variety of optical vortex structures nested in a localized beam envelope supported by cubic-quintic media confined in a rotating harmonic trap. The globally linked vortex cluster comprises an even number of vortices with topological charges equaling 1 and ???1 alternately. In the nonrotating frame, singlecharged vortices reside evenly on a ring. Yet, the system rotation induces the Coriolis force, which in turn leads to a strong asymmetry of the vortex cluster. With the increase of rotation frequency, vortex clusters with a different number of vortices transform into rotating nonlinear states with different symmetries. Meanwhile, the beam envelope is deformed obviously. Nonrotating vortex clusters are stable provided that their power exceeds a certain critical value. Unstable rotating states are very robust and survive over thousands of diffraction lengths.

Automated summary

By nesting a rich variety of optical vortex structures in a localized beam envelope supported by cubic-quintic media confined in a rotating harmonic trap, we observe rotating nonlinear states with different symmetries in vortex clusters and significant deformation of the beam envelope.