  Vortices carrying quantized topological charges have potential application in
information processing. In this work, we investigate vortex carriers and
waveguides in microcavity polariton condensates, nonresonantly excited by a
homogeneous pump with intensity grooves. An intensity groove with a ring shape
in the pump gives rise to dark-ring states of the condensate with a $\pi$-phase
jump, akin to dark solitons. The dark-ring states can be destroyed by a
stronger density of the surrounding condensate and reduce into
vortex-antivortex pairs. Multiple vortex-pair states are found to be stable in
the same dark ring of the pump. When the pump ring is broader, higher-order
dark states with multiple $\pi$-phase jumps can be obtained and interestingly
they can be used to construct vortex waveguides. If a single vortex is
imprinted in such waveguides, it can travel in a particular direction, showing
one-way transportation. In other words, an imprinted vortex with a certain
charge in a specifically designed higher-order dark state is only allowed to
propagate unidirectionally.
