Twisted optical fibers sustaining propagation of optical vortices

The mode structure (the orbital number l = 1) of a few-mode weakly guiding optical fiber with high linear birefringence and a regular twist of its anisotropy axes is investigated. It is shown that, for certain values of twist pitch, the modes with l = 1 are almost pure linearly polarized optical vortices in the local coordinate system associated with the anisotropy axes. The range of values of twist pitch in which twisted fibers sustain propagation of linearly polarized optical vortices is determined numerically.