Efficient generation and amplification of intense vortex and vector laser pulses via strongly coupled stimulated Brillouin scattering in plasmas

The past decade has seen tremendous interest and progress in the production and utilization of vortex and vector laser beams. As two special kinds of structured light, the vortex lasers have helical phase fronts and phase singularities, while the vector lasers have spatially variable polarization states and polarization singularities. In contrast to the vortex pulses that carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), the vector laser pulses have a complex spin angular momentum (SAM) and OAM coupling. Despite of many potential applications enabled by such pulses, the generation of high-intensity vortex and vector beams remains challenging. Here we demonstrate theoretically and with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that the strongly coupled stimulated Brillouin scattering (sc-SBS) process in plasmas can be used as a promising amplification technique with extremely high energy transfer efficiency for both vortex and vector lasers. We also show the various couplings when such complex lasers interact with plasmas, leading to the generation of intense new light structures with controllable OAM and SAM. This scheme significantly reduces the size of amplification system and promotes access to high-intensity vortex and vector laser beams for scientific and industrial applications.