title: Rows of optical vortices from elliptically perturbing a high-order beam.
abstract: An optical vortex (phase singularity) with a high topological strength resides on the axis of a high-order light beam. The breakup of this vortex under elliptic perturbation into a straight row of unit-strength vortices is described. This behavior is studied in helical Ince-Gauss beams and astigmatic, generalized Hermite-Laguerre-Gauss beams, which are perturbations of Laguerre-Gauss beams. Approximations of these beams are derived for small perturbations, in which a neighborhood of the axis can be approximated by a polynomial in the complex plane: a Chebyshev polynomial for Ince-Gauss beams, and a Hermite polynomial for astigmatic beams.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. mark.dennis@soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Dennis