<title>Analysis of optical vortex beams with integer and fractional topological charge</title>

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of optical vortex beams with integer and fractional topological charges, produced by binary computer-generated holograms. In the case of integer topological charge, diffraction of a Gaussian beam by the hologram creates an optical vortex beam with amplitude distribution, which can be described in the far field by the Kummer function. We introduced for such beams the name “Kummer beams”. An analysis of the optical vortex beam with 1/2 fractional topological charge shows that it can be represented in the far field as a superposition of a vortex-free wave and single-charged anisotropic optical vortex.