Experimental observation and manipulation of optical tornado waves

Abstract

We report experimental generation and manipulation of optical tornado waves (ToWs). By controlling the self-focusing length, total angular momentum, and foci deviation of ToWs, the propagation properties of optical ToWs, especially their angular velocity of the main intensity lobes, can be manipulated. We achieve controlling the accumulated rotation angle of the intensity lobes from 0 to 1100 degrees. Also, we confirm that ToWs get the highest angular velocity around the foci coincide situation. Our experimental results are in good agreement with numerical results.