Abstract
We demonstrate that our theoretical scheme developed in the previous study on the caustics of the abruptly autofocusing vortex beams [Xiao et al., Opt. Express 29, 19975 (2021)] is universal for all the axially .symmetric vortex beams. Further analyses based on this method show the complex compositions of the vortex caustics in real space. Fine features of the global caustics are well reproduced, including their deviations from the trajectories of the host beams. Besides, we also show the possibility of tailoring the vortex caustics in paraxial optics based on our theory. The excellent agreements of our theoretical results with both numerical and experimental results confirm the validity of this scheme. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement