  We demonstrated that by using a pump field with non-zero orbital angular
momentum (OAM) in the polarization self-rotation squeezing process it is
possible to generate a squeezed vacuum optical field with the matching OAM. We
found a similar level of maximum quantum noise reduction for a first-order
Laguerre-Gaussian pump beam and a regular Gaussian pump beam, even though the
optimal operational conditions differed in these two cases. Also, we
investigated the effect of self-defocusing on the level of the vacuum squeezing
by simultaneously monitoring the minimum quantum noise level and the output
beam transverse profile at various pump laser powers and atomic densities, and
found no direct correlations between the increased beam size and the degree of
measured squeezing.
