Propagation dynamics of abruptly autofocusing circular Airyprime beam with an optical vortex

Circular Airyprime beam (CAPB) is a new kind of abruptly autofocusing beam introduced recently [Opt. Express, 30, 3804 (2022)], which possesses much stronger autofocusing ability than that of circular Airy beam under the same conditions. In this paper, we investigate the free-space propagation dynamics of such kind of beam embedded with an optical vortex (OV), named circular Airyprime vortex beam (CAPVB) hereafter. The effects of the topological charge and the singularity position of the OV on the abruptly autofocusing ability and the focus position of the CAPVB are examined. Our results reveal that the abruptly autofocusing ability of the CAPVB decreases significantly as the topological charge or the radial position of the OV's singularity increases, whereas its autofocusing ability keeps invariant against the azimuthal angle of the OV's singularity if the radial position of the singularity is fixed. In addition, the focus position of the CAPVB elongates with the increase of the topological charge, while this position only has a little changes as the radial position varies. Further, we carry out an experiment for the generation of the CAPVB and demonstrate the autofocusing behaviors experimentally. The experimental results are well consistent with the theoretical results. Although the abruptly autofocusing ability of the CAPVB is weaker than that of the CAPB, the most peculiar properties of the CAPVB is that this beam could produce various special focus intensity patterns by manipulating the topological charge and the singularity position of the OV, and carries the orbital angular momentum, which has promising applications in many fields.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the free-space propagation dynamics of circular Airyprime vortex beam (CAPVB) embedded with an optical vortex (OV), and examines the effects of topological charge and singularity position on its autofocusing ability and focus position. Experimental results demonstrate the theoretical findings and show that CAPVB has the ability to produce various special focus intensity patterns and carry orbital angular momentum.