Measurement of real phase distribution of a vortex beam propagating in free space based on an improved heterodyne interferometer

This paper proposes an improved heterodyne interferometer to measure the real phase distribution of vortex beams propagating in free space. The fundamental mode Gaussian beam passes through the vortex phase plate and has one or more phase transitions of 2π along the angular direction. Such vortex beams undergo phase distortion during transmission, and their complex phase distribution is difficult to measure. The improved heterodyne interferometer proposed in this study successfully measures the phase distortion, demonstrating high spatial resolution and phase measurement accuracy. Both the theoretical and the experimental results show that in the process of free space propagation, the phase jump intersection boundary transforms from a straight line into a twisted line and that the phase distribution gradually becomes a spiral phase distribution followed by a ring intensity distribution corresponding to further increase in the propagation distance. The proposed method is estimated to be capable of predicting the variation of the vortex beams based on the research conducted on the interaction between the vortex beams and the atmospheric turbulence.