Quality improvement of partially coherent symmetric-intensity beams caused by quartic phase distortions

Abstract

The effects that quartic phase distortions produce in the beam-quality parameter of partially coherent symmetric-intensity beams are studied. An analytical expression for the beam-quality parameter at the output plane of a pure phase plate with quartic phase aberration has been derived. Explicit conditions to improve the beam quality are provided, and the corresponding optimized beam-quality value that can be attained for a given field has been determined.