Piquero Sanz, Gemma MaríaMartínez Herrero, María RosarioMejías Arias, Pedro Miguel2023-06-202023-06-202008-02-150030-401810.1016/j.optcom.2007.10.096https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/50872©2007 Elsevier B.V. This work has been supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain, Project FIS2004-1900, and by CM-UCM, Research Group 910335 (2007).In terms of the so-called irradiance moments of a light field, the beam quality change, ΔQ, of radially and azimuthally polarized beams caused by propagation through a quartic phase plate (as occurs for example, in strongly pumped laser rods used in high-power solid-state lasers) is studied. Analytical expressions for ΔQ are given, and a comparison between the scalar and vectorial regimes is also shown. The results are applied to several cases of interest.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2007.10.096http://www.sciencedirect.comopen access535Nd-Yag LasersParametric CharacterizationSpherical-AberrationGenerationBirefringenceLightRodÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física