Fig. 6. Recorded polarization profiles through different decoding modules.

The measured S₁ Stokes parameter profile of input (m = 4, +) (upper) and (m = 8, +) (lower) vector vortex modes propagating through the free-space channel at various turbulence settings with no decoding, correct decoding, and incorrect decoding, respectively. The color indicates the value of the normalized S₁ parameter between −1 and 1. More snapshots of the profiles can be found in Supplementary Movie 1 for input mode (m = 4, +) and Supplementary Movie 2 for input mode (m = 8, +).