Average intensity and spectral shifts of a partially coherent standard or elegant Laguerre-Gaussian beam beyond paraxial approximation

With the help of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral, an analytical formula for the spectral density of a nonparaxial polychromatic partially coherent (NPPC) standard or elegant Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam propagating through free space is derived. The evolution properties of the intensity distribution of a NPPC standard or elegant LG beam are studied numerically. It is found that the behavior of the intensity distribution of the NPPC standard or elegant LG beam is determined by the initial beam parameters (i.e., beam waist size, spatial coherence width and beam orders). Furthermore, we also study the influence of the initial beam parameters on the spectral change of a NPPC standard or elegant LG beam upon propagation in free space. It is shown that the on-axis spectral shift of a NPPC standard LG beam is almost the same with that of a NPPC elegant LG beam when the initial beam parameters of two type beams are identical. However, the difference between the off-axis spectral shift between a NPPC standard LG beam and a NPPC elegant LG beam is enhanced with the decrease of beam waist size or with the increase of spatial coherence width and beam mode orders.