Introducing vortices into an Airy beam by the interference between the lobes of the Airy beam for the first time, the modulation of Airy vortices is experimentally and theoretically investigated by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect and changing the number of side lobes of the Airy beam. The formation and disappearance of vortices in Airy beams can be caused by changing the number of side lobes. The EIT effect can induce the movement of vortex phase singularity by regulating the intensities of lobes in Airy beams. However, changing the number of side lobes can change the energy distribution of the lobes through the energy flow due to the self-healing of Airy beams, thus causing the displacement of vortex phase singularity. In addition, the simulation of the Poynting vector shows that the less the side lobes are blocked, the more energy can be retained in the main lobe and the unblocked side lobes, so that the overall shape of the Airy beam can be better maintained. Such studies provide a new method to acquire and adjust Airy vortex beams and can be applied in the realm of optical micromanipulation.

We have introduced vortex fields in an Airy beam using interference between the lobes of the Airy beam, which is different from the previous method to generate optical vortices in an Airy beam. Compared to the interference of Gaussian beams, the vortex introduced by the interference between the Airy lobes is more robust due to the nondiffraction property of an Airy beam. The formation and disappearance of the vortex fields can be modulated by the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect and the probe field power. Specifically, no optical vortices are formed because interference between the lobes of an Airy beam cannot occur if there is a weak probe field. The EIT effect can control the generation and disappearance of the vortex field when the probe field power is critical. In the meantime, the vortex field changes the energy distribution in an Airy beam because of constructive and destructive interference in the main lobe and the side lobes. In particular, the EIT effect also can be used to regulate the position of the vortex phase singularity. We achieved Airy vortex beam regulation using multiparameters, which we believe can play a significant role in complex optical micromanipulation.

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