Abstract
The spontaneous emergence of vector vortex beams with non-uniform polarization distribution is reported in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with frequency-selective feedback. Anti-vortices with a hyperbolic polarization structure and radially polarized vortices are demonstrated. They exist close to and partially coexist with vortices with uniform and non-uniform polarization distributions characterized by four domains of pairwise orthogonal polarization. These vector vortices are argued to have soliton-like properties. Independently of this interpretation, the novel way of generating these nontrivial structures in a remarkably simple VCSEL system is regarded to be interesting and potentially beneficial for other experiments utilizing non-uniform polarization structures.