Vortex random fiber laser with controllable orbital angular momentum mode

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a vortex random fiber laser (RFL) with a controllable orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode. The topological charge of the vortex RFL can range from − 50 t o 50 with nearly watt-level output power. A triangular toroidal interferometer is constructed to verify the spiral phase structure of the generated vortex random laser with a special coherence property. Vortex RFLs with fractional topological charge are also performed in this work. As the first demonstration of a vortex RFL with a controllable OAM mode (to the best of our knowledge), this work may not only offer a valuable reference on temporal modulation of a vortex beam and optical field control of an RFL but also provide a potential vortex laser source for applications in imaging, sensing, and communication.