Anisotropy-coupled symmetry breaking for chirality-switchable vortex laser

We systematically compare two passive symmetry-breaking schemes, output coupler (OC) lateral translation and gain crystal tilting, for chiral switching in an annular-pumped solid-state vortex laser system. In both approaches, the combination of cavity geometric asymmetry and intrinsic crystal anisotropy introduces differential round trip loss between the conjugate LG0,±1 vortex modes, thus supporting dominant oscillation of a single-chirality vortex mode. However, OC translation introduces transverse beam deviation, which inevitably distorts the annular vortex profile and degrades beam quality. In contrast, moderate crystal tilting achieves effective symmetry breaking while fully preserving the hollow annular morphology, owing to the optical confinement effect of the concave resonator that restricts the intracavity mode within the annular gain region. Under an incident pump power of 8 W, the laser delivers a maximum output power of 2.2 W for the degenerate vortex state and 1.7 W for stable single-chirality vortices. This work elucidates the fundamental similarities and differences between the two anisotropy-coupled chirality modulation mechanisms and provides a high-fidelity, robust solution for high-performance chirality-switchable vortex lasers suitable for orbital angular momentum communication and particle manipulation.