Analytical formulas for a circular or non-circular flat-topped beam propagating through an apertured paraxial optical system

Propagation of a flat-topped beam of circular or non-circular (rectangular or elliptical) symmetry through an apertured optical system is investigated. By expanding the hard aperture function as a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions, some approximate analytical propagation formulas are derived for a flat-topped beam of circular or non-circular (rectangular or elliptical) symmetry propagating through an apertured paraxial general astigmatic (GA) optical system or an apertured paraxial misaligned stigmatic (ST) optical system. The derived formulas are very fast to compute. The results obtained by using the approximate analytical expressions are in a good agreement with those obtained by direct numerical integration. The present analytical formulas provide a convenient and effective way for studying the propagation and transformation of a circular or non-circular flat-topped beam through an apertured general optical system.