VORTEX OPTICAL MAGNUS EFFECT IN MULTIMODE FIBERS

A theoretical and experimental analysis is made of the optical Magnus effect in multimode optical fibers excited by a laser beam whose wavef ront has It pure screw dislocation and carries the topological charge +/-l, where l is the azimuthal quantum number. It is found that the an gular rotation of the plane of propagation of a local wave depends on the magnitude and sign of the topological charge and changes qualitati vely when the circulation of the polarization is reversed. The phase m echanism is attributed to spin-orbit interaction in the photon ensembl e. It is demonstrated experimentally that the optical Magnus effect in a few-mode fiber for the CP11 mode at the beat length is observed as a rotation of the axis of the pure edge dislocation field through an a ngle proportional to the beat length. (C) 1997 American Institute of P hysics. [S1063-7850(97)03108-X].