Optical vortices are phase singularities nested in electromagnetic waves that constitute a fascinating source of phenomena in the physics of light and display deep similarities to their close relatives, quantized vortices in superfluids and Bose-Einstein condensates. We present a brief overview of the major advances in the study of optical vortices in different types of nonlinear media, with emphasis on the properties of vortex solitons. Self-focusing nonlinearity leads, in general, to the azimuthal instability of a vortex-carrying beam, but it can also support novel types of stable or meta-stable self-trapped beams carrying nonzero angular momentum, such as ring-like solitons, necklace beams, and soliton clusters. We describe vortex solitons created by multi-component beams, by parametrically coupled beams in quadratic nonlinear media, and in partially incoherent light, as well as discrete vortex solitons in periodic photonic lattices.

Macroscopically degenerate flat bands (FB) in periodic lattices host compact localized states which appear due to destructive interference and local symmetry. Interference provides a deep connection between the existence of flat band states (FBS) and the appearance of Fano resonances for wave propagation. We introduce generic transformations detangling FBS and dispersive states into lattices of Fano defects. Inverting the transformation, we generate a continuum of FB models. Our procedure allows us to systematically treat perturbations such as disorder and explain the emergence of energy-dependent localization length scaling in terms of Fano resonances.

We introduce novel classes of higher-order spatial optical solitons in analogy with Laguerre-Gaussian and Hermite-Gaussian linear eigenmodes. We reveal that stable higher-order optical solitons can exist in nonlocal nonlinear media in the various forms of soliton necklaces and soliton matrices. Modulational instability can lead to nontrivial transformations between energetically close solitons with different symmetries through the intermediate states resembling generalized Hermite-Laguerre-Gaussian modes.

We report on the first experimental observation of photonic Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional periodic systems. We study the propagation of an optical beam in a square photonic lattice superimposed on a refractive index ramp, and demonstrate the tunneling of light from the first to the higher-order transmission bands of the lattice bandgap spectrum, associated with the spectral dynamics inside the first Brillouin zone and corresponding oscillations of the primary beam.