Due to the extensive application of radially polarized beams, the generation and propagation of this kind of beam are investigated theoretically and experimentally in this paper. In theory, the generation of TEM01 and TEM10 beams and radially polarized light beam are simulated by the integral of scalar diffraction. In experiment, by the use of phase step, two orthogonally polarized TEM00 beams are converted to TEM01 and TEM10 beams with orthogonal polarization respectively outside the cavity. Then the radially polarized light beam is obtained by coherent superposition of TEM01 and TEM10 beams. The influence of experimental error on the generation of radially polarized light beam, and the change of the light spot of radially polarized light beam in propagation are investigated. A longitudinal electric field and teeny focal spot can be generated by focusing the radially polarized light beam, therefore, it may have extensive application in many fields, such as particle acceleration, high-resolution microscopy and material processing etc.