Astigmatic laser beams with a large orbital angular momentum

We show that an elliptic Gaussian beam, focused by a cylindrical lens, can be represented as a linear combination of a countable number of only even angular harmonics with both positive and negative topological charge. For the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the astigmatic Gaussian beam, an exact expression is obtained in a form of a converging series of the Legendre functions of the second kind. It is shown that at some conditions only the terms with the positive or negative topological charge are remained in this series. Using a hybrid numeric-experimental approach, we obtained the normalized OAM of the astigmatic beam, equal to 109, which is just 6% different from the exact OAM of 116, calculated by the equation. To generate such laser beams, there is no need in special optical elements such as spiral phase plates. The OAM of such beams can be adjusted by varying the waist radius of the Gaussian beam and the focal length of the cylindrical lens. The OAM of such beams can reach large values. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement