Vortex chaoticons in thermal nonlocal nonlinear media

This paper numerically investigates the propagation of Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beams launched in nonlocal nonlinear media, such as lead glass. Our results show that the propagation properties depend on the selection of beam parameters m and p, which represent the azimuthal and radial mode numbers. When p=0, these profiles can be stable solitons for m≤2, or break up and then form a set of single-hump profiles for m≥3, which are unbounded states with scattered remnants of the energy. However, for p≥1, the broken beams can evolve into vortex chaoticons, which exhibit both chaotic and solitonlike properties. The chaotic properties are determined by the positive Lyapunov exponents and spatial decoherence, while the solitonlike properties are demonstrated by the invariance of beam width and the interaction of beams in the form of quasielastic collisions. In addition, the power and orbital angular momentum of unbounded beam states both decay in propagation, while those of the chaoticons maintain their values well.