Interaction-produced vector vortex chaoticons in nonlocal nonlinear media

This paper numerically investigates the long-distance propagation characteristics of vector vortex chaoticons produced by the incoherent interaction between one second-order vortex soliton and another higher-order vortex chaos in thermally nonlocal nonlinear media such as lead glass. When the two equal-power vortices interact incoherently, the vortex soliton is endowed with chaotic properties by the vortex chaos, whereas the vortex chaos is endowed with soliton-like properties by the vortex soliton. As a result, both evolve into vortex chaoticons. The chaotic properties of vortex chaoticons are signified by the positive Lyapunov exponents and spatial decoherence, whereas the soliton-like properties are determined by intensity trapping and the quasielastic collision interaction. By changing the power ratio of the two vortices, we achieved the transition between different states, i.e., chaos–chaos, chaos–chaoticon, chaoticon–chaoticon, soliton–chaoticon, and soliton–soliton states. In addition, by changing the topological charge, we identified that vector chaoticons with counterrotating vortices exhibited better trapping ability than those with corotating vortices. The controllable transition between chaos, chaoticon, and soliton may have potential applications in chaotic synchronization and secure chaotic communication.