Experimental observation of anisotropic diffraction induced by orbital angular momentum

We reveal for the first time a direct relationship between the diffraction of optical beams and their carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). We experimentally demonstrate a novel phenomenon that the anisotropic diffraction can be induced by the OAM, predicted by us [Opt. Express, textbf{26}, 8084 (2018)], via the propagations of the elliptic beams with the OAM in linearly and both-linearly-and-nonlinearly isotropic media, respectively. In the former case, when its carrying OAM equals the so-called critical OAM, the spiraling elliptic Gaussian beam (fundamental eigenmode) is observed in the free space, where only the eigenmode with cylindrical-symmetry is supposed to exist for the beam without the OAM. In the latter case, the spiraling elliptic soliton, predicted by Desyatnikov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett, textbf{104}, 053902 (2010)], is observed to stably propagate in a cylindrical lead glass. The power-controllable rotation of such an elliptic beam is also experimentally demonstrated.