Generation and propagation of an electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model vortex beam.

We outline the propagation of an electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model (EGSM) vortex beam through a paraxial ABCD optical system and analyze the vortex phase-induced changes of the statistical properties, such as average intensity, state of polarization, and degree of polarization (DOP), of a focused EGSM beam. It is found that one can shape the beam profile of an EGSM vortex beam in the focal plane through varying its initial topological charge, DOP, and coherence widths. Furthermore, we first report experimental generation of an EGSM vortex beam and measure its focusing properties in experiments. Our experimental results are consistent with the numerical results and may be useful in material thermal processing and particle trapping.