Higher-charged vortices in mixed linear-nonlinear circular arrays

We report on the dynamics of vortex solitons in circular waveguide arrays featuring modulation of both the linear and nonlinear refractive indices. Out-of-phase competition between both effects supports multipeaked vortex solitons with higher topological charges. A vortex solution can be found only when its charge is less than half of the number of waveguides. It may expand or shrink radially with the propagation constant, depending on the ratio between the topological charge and the number of waveguides. Surprisingly, vortex solitons with higher charges are more stable than those with lower charges, which is very rare and contrary to the stability of vortices in uniform or lattice-modulated media. Our findings suggest an alternative way for the realization of stable vortex solitons with higher charges.