Astigmatic transforms of an optical vortex for measurement of its topological charge

We obtain analytical expressions for the complex amplitudes of optical vortices deformed by astigmatic transforms, i.e., passed either through a cylindrical lens or through an inclined spherical lens. We also obtain similar analytical expressions describing propagation of an optical vortex generated when a Gaussian beam illuminates an inclined spiral phase plate (SPP) or when an elliptic Gaussian beam illuminates a SPP (not inclined). All these optical vortices with a topological charge (TC) n are described by the n-th order Hermite polynomial with a complex argument. It is shown that the argument is real only on a straight line in the transverse plane of the laser beam. There are n intensity nulls on this line. The treated here astigmatic transforms are used to determine the integer TC of optical vortices. We conduct a comparative experimental study of different astigmatic transforms and we show that the transform with a cylindrical lens is the best for determining the TC. Unlike other similar works, in this study we achieve transformation of n-degenerate intensity null of an optical vortex with the TC n = 100 into n isolated first-order intensity nulls. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America