Manipulating propagation and evolution of coherence singularities in twisted partially coherent beams

Abstract We derive an analytical formulation for the propagating cross-spectral density (CSD) in twisted partially coherent beams and investigate the dynamic evolution of coherence singularities under different correlation structures. Taking Sinc correlated and Hermite–Gaussian correlated structures as typical examples, we study the amplitude and phase distributions of the CSD with different selection of the reference point position. Quantitative analysis of the trajectory equations for these coherence singularities is given. Using the complex transmittance screen, we present the simulation results of the source-plane amplitude distribution with on-axis reference point, which shows clear agreement with the theoretical predictions. These findings hold potentially benefit applications such as optical communication.