Propagation characteristics of the modified circular Airy beam

We have proposed a kind of modified circular Airy beam (MCAB) based upon a modification of the Fourier spectrum of circular Airy beams (CAB) in this paper. Unlike most abruptly autofocusing beams, the position of peak intensity of MCAB can be moved to any rings behind. Two apodization parameters are introduced to describe the propagation characteristics of MCAB. It is found that the focal position, focal trajectory and the size of focal spot do not change with the apodization parameters; but the abruptly autofocusing property will be greatly enhanced if appropriately apodization parameters are chosen. Comparing with the common CAB and the previous blocked CAB, the MCAB shows better abruptly autofocusing property. It may have more applications in various fields. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America