Collapse of hybrid vector beam in Rb atomic vapor

In recent years, many researchers have tried to control and design the collapsing behavior of light beams in nonlinear media. Vector beams coupling with spin and orbit angular momentum freedom have attracted more and more attention. In this Letter, we study the collapse of a hybrid vector beam (HVB) propagating through rubidium atomic vapor. First, the HVB collapses into filaments located at positions with linear polarization. As propagation distance in atomic vapor increases, the locations of the filaments switch from positions with linear polarization to those with circular polarization. In this process, the absorption of the medium plays an important role. Results indicate that the absorption can be used as a degree of freedom to modulate the filamentation. Furthermore, by analyzing the polarization angle of an elliptically polarized position on the transverse plane of the HVB, we demonstrate the evolution of polarization distribution of HVB during propagation. Such results could have application in manipulating other structured beams and could be potentially applied to realize optical switches or logic for information processing.