Propagation of four-petal Gaussian beams in apertured fractional Fourier transforming systems

Based on the Collins diffraction integral formula and the fact that a hard-edged-aperture function can be expanded into a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions, the propagation of a four-petal Gaussian beam passing through an apertured fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) optical system has been studied in detail. Some typical numerical examples are given to illustrate the properties of the four-petal Gaussian beam in the FRFT plane. The results indicate that the intensity distributions of the beam in the FRFT plane are closely related to not only the fractional order but also the beam parameters and the aperture parameters.