Influence of atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of superimposed partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian beams

The influence of atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of superimposed partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian (H-G) beams is studied in detail. The closed-form propagation equation of superimposed partially coherent H-G beams through atmospheric turbulence is derived. It is shown that the turbulence accelerates the evolution of three stages which superimposed partially coherent H-G beams undergo. The turbulence results in a beam spreading and a decrease of the maximum intensity. However, the larger the beam number M, the beam order m, the separate distance x_d, and the smaller the beam correlation length σ₀ are, the less the power focusability of superimposed partially coherent H-G beams is affected by the turbulence. Specially, superimposed partially coherent H-G beams are less sensitive to turbulence than superimposed fully ones, and than partially coherent H-G beams if the beam power focusability and the maximum intensity are taken as beam criterions. However, the maximum intensity of superimposed partially coherent H-G beams is less sensitive or more sensitive to turbulence than that of superimposed Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beams depending on σ₀.