Propagation of Laguerre–Gaussian beams in cubic–quintic nonlinear media by variational approach

We analyze the propagation of Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams in a cubic–quintic nonlinear medium by using the variational method. For low intensities, the results are in good agreement with the results of a numerical simulation. The characteristics of LG beams in the nonlinear medium are explored and the electric field distribution in the far field after passing through the nonlinear medium is calculated.