Symmetric form-invariant dual Pearcey beams.

We introduce another type of Pearcey beam, namely, dual Pearcey (DP) beams, based on the Pearcey function of catastrophe theory. DP beams are experimentally generated by applying Fresnel diffraction of bright elliptic rings. Form-invariant Bessel distribution beams can be regarded as a special case of DP beams. Subsequently, the basic propagation characteristics of DP beams are identified. DP beams are the result of the interference of two half DP beams instead of two classical Pearcey beams. Moreover, we also verified that half DP beams (including special-case parabolic-like beams) generated by half elliptical rings (circular rings) are a new member of the family of form-invariant beams.