Propagation of decentered elliptical Gaussian beams in apertured and nonsymmetrical optical systems

A hard-edged elliptical aperture is described approximately by a tensor form, which can be expanded as a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions. An analytical propagation expression for a decentered elliptical Gaussian beam (DEGB) through an axially nonsymmetrical optical system with an elliptical aperture is derived by using vector integration. The approximate analytical results are compared with numerically integral ones, and it is shown that this method can significantly improve the efficiency of numerical calculation. Some numerical simulations are illustrated for the propagation properties of DEGBs through apertured and nonsymmetrical optical transforming systems. (C) 2006 Optical Society of America.