Nonparaxial propagation of vector vortex beams diffracted by a circular aperture

In terms of the vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral, the analytical expressions of the arbitrary vector vortex Laguerre-Gaussian beams on the higher-order Poincare sphere diffracted by a circular aperture propagating in the nonparaxial and paraxial regimes are presented. The cylindrical vector beam, circularly polarized vortex beam, and elliptically polarized vortex beam are viewed as the special cases of our general result. The analyses show that the nonparaxial evolution properties of the apertured vector vortex beams are determined by the waist width, the truncation parameter, the topological charge, and the ellipticity angle. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America