Polarization Evolution of Radially Polarized Partially Coherent Vortex Fields: Role of Gouy Phase of Laguerre-Gauss Beams.

In the framework of the paraxial approximation, we derive the analytical expressions for describing the effect of the Gouy phase of Laguerre-Gauss beams on the polarization evolution of partially coherent vortex fields whose electric field vector at some transverse plane exhibits a radially polarized behavior. At each transverse plane, the polarization distribution across the beam profile is characterized by means of the percentage of irradiance associated with the radial or azimuthal components. The propagation laws for these percentages are also presented. As an illustrative example, we analyze a radially polarized partially coherent vortex beam.