  We study the properties of the Fraunhofer diffraction patterns produced by
Gaussian beams crossing spiral phase plates. We show, both analytically and
numerically, that off-axis displacements of the input beam produce asymmetric
diffraction patterns. The intensity profile along the direction of maximum
asymmetry shows two different peaks. We find that the intensity ratio between
these two peaks decreases exponentially with the off-axis displacement of the
incident beam, the decay being steeper for higher strengths of the optical
singularity of the spiral phase plate. We analyze how this intensity ratio can
be used to measure small misalignments of the input beam with a very high
precision.
