Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The nonlinear dynamics of laser beams carrying phase singularity in media with cubic-quintic nonlinearity is studied. In such media can be generated not only localized vortex solitons but also a novel kind of stable nonlocalized optical vortices. Stability in the defocusing regime is confirmed numerically. In the focusing regime such a vortex breaks into filaments. Dynamics of a singular Gaussian beam is investigated. Numerical simulations show a new behavior of the supercritical Gaussian beam which first breaks into filaments coalescing after. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.