Abstract: The nonparaxial propagation of radially polarized chirped Airy beams (RPCAiBs) in uniaxial crystal orthogonal to the optical axis is analytically studied. The effects of the first and the second order chirp factors, and the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index on the nonparaxial evolution of RPCAiBs in different observation planes are investigated in detail. The results show that when one parameter changes, different components behave differently, and even the same component has various behavior in different directions. The initial slope of RPCAiBs in the x-direction varies more with the first order chirp factor than that in the y-direction. Meanwhile, with the second order chirp factor becoming larger, the depth of the focus of the y-component in the x-direction decreases while that in the y-direction has no difference. In addition, the different ratios of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index change the difference of the depth of the focus between the x-and the y-components.

Key words: radial polarization, nonparaxial propagation, Airy beam, uniaxial crystal, chirp