Area scintillations of Bessel Gaussian and modified Bessel Gaussian beams of zeroth order

As an extension of our previous study, the area scintillation aspects of Bessel Gaussian and modified Bessel Gaussian beams of zeroth order are investigated. The analysis is carried out on the basis of equal source sizes and equal source powers. It is found that, when compared on equal source size basis, modified Bessel Gaussian beams always have less area scintillations than a Gaussian beam, while Bessel Gaussian beams exhibit more area scintillations. Comparison on equal source power basis, however, removes the advantage of modified Bessel Gaussian beams, that is, their area scintillations become nearly the same as those of the Gaussian beam. On the other hand, for the case of equal source powers, Bessel Gaussian beams with larger width parameters continue to have higher area scintillations than the Gaussian beam. We provide graphical illustrations for profiles of equal source size beams, equal source power beams and the curves to aid the selection of equal source power beams.     

Annular, cosh and cos Gaussian beams in strong turbulence

For the strong atmospheric turbulence regime, the asymptotic on-axis scintillation behavior of annular, cosh and cos Gaussian beams is theoretically derived and illustrated with numerical examples. It is observed from the plots that annular Gaussian beams exhibit more scintillations than a Gaussian beam, regardless of the amplitude coefficient and source size settings. For small source sizes, cosh Gaussian beams seem to have an advantage over Gaussian beams in terms of reduced scintillation, but for large source sizes a switchover occurs where cos Gaussian beams assume the advantage. Analysis of the effect of inner scale value shows that scintillations increases for all beams as the inner scale increases.     

Scintillation behavior of cos, cosh and annular Gaussian beams in non-Kolmogorov turbulence

For a non-Kolmogorov spectrum, scintillation aspects of cos, cosh and annular Gaussian beams are investigated. The appropriate mathematical formulation is developed, the derived scintillation index is evaluated and its variation is plotted in graphs. We find that, when the values of the power coefficient of the spectrum are just above 3, low scintillation is encountered, then as the power coefficient is increased, rises will occur with a peak being reached around 3.21. From there onwards, scintillation will drop, as the power coefficient approaches a value of 5. For extreme off-axis positions, there will be slight increases in scintillation at high power coefficient values. At points near on-axis and when the beams have small width sizes, cosh Gaussian beam having a bigger displacement parameter will offer the lowest scintillation. At large width sizes, this advantage will switch to the side of the cos Gaussian beam. In this study, the variation of scintillation with other sources and propagation parameters is examined as well.     

Annular beam scintillations in non-Kolmogorov weak turbulence

In a weakly turbulent atmosphere governed by the non-Kolmogorov spectrum, the on-axis scintillation index is formulated and evaluated when the incidence is an annular Gaussian type. When the power law of the non-Kolmogorov spectrum is varied, the scintillation index first increases, and reaches a peak value, then starts to decrease, and eventually approaches zero. The general trend is that when turbulence has a non-Kolmogorov spectrum with power law larger than the Kolmogorov power law, the scintillation index values become smaller. For all power laws, collimated annular Gaussian beams exhibit smaller scintillations when compared to pure Gaussian beams of the same size. Intensity fluctuations at a fixed propagation distance diminish for the non-Kolmogorov spectrum with a very large power law, irrespective of the focal length and the thickness of optical annular Gaussian sources.     

Beam wander of dark hollow, flat-topped and annular beams

Benefiting from the earlier derivations for the Gaussian beam, we formulate beam wander for dark hollow (DH) and flat-topped (FT) beams, also covering the annular Gaussian (AG) beam as a special case. Via graphical illustrations, beam wander variations of these beams are analyzed and compared among themselves and to the fundamental Gaussian beam against changes in propagation length, amplitude factor, source size, wavelength of operation, inner and outer scales of turbulence. These comparisons show that in relation to the fundamental Gaussian beam, DH and FT beams will exhibit less beam wander, particularly at small primary beam source sizes, lower amplitude factors of the secondary beam and higher beam orders. Furthermore, DH and FT beams will continue to preserve this advantageous position all throughout the considered range of wavelengths, inner and outer scales of turbulence. FT beams, in particular, are observed to have the smallest beam wander values among all, up to certain source sizes.     

Scintillation advantages of lowest order Bessel–Gaussian beams

For a weak turbulence propagation environment, the scintillation index of the lowest order Bessel–Gaussian beams is formulated. Its triple and single integral versions are presented. Numerical evaluations show that at large source sizes and large width parameters, when compared at the same source size, Bessel–Gaussian beams tend to exhibit lower scintillations than the Gaussian beam scintillations. This advantage is lost however for excessively large width parameters and beyond certain propagation lengths. Large width parameters also cause rises and falls in the scintillation index of off-axis positions toward the edges of the received beam. Comparisons against the fundamental Gaussian beam are made on equal source size and equal power basis. PACS  42.25.Dd; 42.25.Bs; 42.68.Bz; 42.68.-w     

Scintillations of multiwavelength Gaussian, cos, cosh and annular Gaussian beams

We provide the scintillation formulation for a multiwavelength source. Within this context, the scintillation aspects of Gaussian, cos, cosh and annular Gaussian beams are investigated. For all situations examined, it is found that for a source comprising many wavelengths, there will be less scintillations as compared to a single wavelength source of the lowest wavelength and but the reverse will be true if the comparison is with respect to the single wavelength source of the highest wavelength. The same is observed at all propagation distances, source sizes, on-axis and off-axis positions considered. Additionally, it is seen that the scintillation characteristics of multiwavelength sources will follow similar trends of single wavelength sources. The analysis is based on the Rytov approximation, therefore our results are valid for conditions of weak atmospheric turbulence.     

Concept of area scintillation

Stemming from the results of our earlier investigations, the concept of area scintillation is introduced, which takes into account the intensity distribution over the receiver plane. In this context, the area scintillation of fundamental Gaussian and annular beams is formulated, numerically evaluated and graphically illustrated. From the comparison, it is seen that, under the same source power conditions, annular Gaussian beams provide much less scintillations than the fundamental Gaussian beams at small source size. At large source sizes and at shorter propagation distances, annular beams are still favorable, but, as the propagation range is extended, the reverse becomes true. A review of previous findings leading up to the newly introduced concept is also presented.     

Scintillations of partially coherent Laguerre Gaussian beams

Scintillations of Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams for weak atmospheric turbulence conditions are derived for on-axis receiver positions by using Huygens–Fresnel (HF) method in semi-analytic fashion. Numerical evaluations indicate that at the fully coherent limit, higher values of radial mode numbers will give rise to more scintillations, at medium and low partial coherence levels, particularly at longer propagation distances, scintillations will fall against rises in radial mode numbers. At small source sizes, the scintillations of LG beams having full coherence will initially rise, reaching saturation at large source sizes. For LG beams with low partial coherence levels, a steady fall toward the larger source sizes is observed. Partially coherent beams of medium levels generally exhibit a rising trend toward the large source sizes, also changing the respective positions of the related curves. Beams of low coherence levels will be less affected by the variations in the refractive index structure constant.     

Intensity fluctuations of partially coherent laser beam arrays in?weak atmospheric turbulence

The intensity fluctuation of a partially coherent laser beam array is examined. For this purpose, the on-axis scintillation index at the receiver plane is analytically formulated via the extended Huygens–Fresnel diffraction integral in conditions of weak atmospheric turbulence. The effects of the propagation length, number of beamlets, radial distance, source size, wavelength of operation and coherence level on the scintillation index are investigated for a horizontal propagation path. It is found that, regardless of the number of beamlets, the scintillation index always rises with an increasing propagation length. If laser beam arrays become less coherent, the scintillation index begins to fall with growing source sizes. Given the same level of partial coherence, slightly less scintillations will occur when the radial distance of the beamlets from the origin is increased. At partial coherence levels, lower scintillations are observed for larger numbers of beamlets. Both for fully and partially coherent laser beam arrays, scintillations will drop on increasing wavelengths.     

Scintillations of laser array beams

The scintillation index of a laser array beam is analytically derived and numerically evaluated for weak turbulence conditions. On-axis as well as off-axis positions of the receiver plane are considered. Our graphical illustrations prove that at longer propagation ranges and at some midrange radial displacement parameters, laser array beams exhibit less scintillations, when compared to a fundamental Gaussian beam. However, when compared among themselves, laser array beams tend to have reduced scintillations with rising numbers of beamlets, longer propagation wavelengths, at midrange radial displacement parameters, at intermediate Gaussian source sizes, at bigger inner scales and smaller outer scales of turbulence. However, in this improvement, the number of beamlets does not seem to have a major role. PACS 42.25.Dd; 42.25.Ja; 42.25.Kb     

Partially coherent Lorentz Gaussian beam and its scintillations

We study the scintillation aspects of partially coherent Lorentz Gaussian (LG) beams via numerically integrating the average and average squared intensity expressions. Within the examined range of input and propagation medium parameters, the LG beams are generally found to offer less and less scintillations against the pure Gaussian beam, particularly when the Lorentzian feature of the beam is emphasized more. This lower scintillation property is exhibited for collimated coherent beams with different Lorentz widths and at on-axis and off-axis positions of the receiver plane. When focusing is introduced, at shorter propagation distances the ordering of the beams remains as described above, but at longer propagations distances a complete reversing of the beam order is observed. Raising the turbulence levels by increasing the structure constant inevitably causes rises in scintillations, while preserving the advantage of LG beams over the pure Gaussian beam. Partial coherence reduces scintillations as expected, at the same time nearly eliminating the scintillation differences between the beam types.     

Effect of spatial coherence on the scintillation properties of a dark hollow beam in turbulent atmosphere

With the help of a tensor method, we derive an explicit expression for the on-axis scintillation index of a circular partially coherent dark hollow (DH) beam in weakly turbulent atmosphere. The derived formula can be applied to study the scintillation properties of a partially coherent Gaussian beam and a partially coherent flat-topped (FT) beam. The effect of spatial coherence on the scintillation properties of DH beam, FT beam and Gaussian beam is studied numerically and comparatively. Our results show that the advantage of a DH beam over a FT beam and a Gaussian beam for reducing turbulence-induced scintillation increases particularly at long propagation distances with the decrease of spatial coherence or the increase of the atmospheric turbulence, which will be useful for long-distance free-space optical communications.     

Effects of extremely strong turbulent medium on scintillations of partially coherent annular and flat-topped Gaussian beams

Scintillation index of partially coherent annular and partially coherent flat-topped Gaussian beams propagating in horizontal links is found at the receiver origin when these beams propagate in extremely strong atmospheric turbulence. Scintillation index of coherent versions of such beams attain unity saturation value whereas the decrease in the degree of source coherence results in the decrease of the scintillations. At a fixed degree of partial coherence, thin ring sized annular beams possess smaller scintillations than thick ones. For partially coherent flat-topped Gaussian beams, higher flatness yields smaller intensity fluctuations. In extremely strong turbulence, partially coherent annular and partially coherent flat-topped Gaussian beams have smaller scintillations when compared to partially coherent single Gaussian beam scintillations.     

Scintillation behavior of Laguerre Gaussian beams in strong turbulence

In strong atmospheric turbulence, the asymptotic on-axis scintillation behaviors of Laguerre Gaussian (LG) beams are examined. To arrive at the strong-turbulence solution, we utilize the existing filtering approach for weak-turbulence solutions and our recently reported weak-turbulence scintillation index formula for LG beams. In the limiting case, our solution correctly predicts the asymptotic strong-turbulence behavior of Gaussian beam wave scintillation. Investigation of the scintillations versus the propagation distance, source size, wavelength and refractive index structure parameter lead to the conclusion that the LG beams with higher order radial modes can provide less scintillation. The results are applicable to long-haul atmospheric optical communication links.     

Effect of spherical aberration on scintillations of Gaussian beams in atmospheric turbulence

The effect of spherical aberration on scintillations of Gaussian beams in weak, moderate and strong turbulence is studied using numerical simulation method. It is found that the effect of the negative spherical aberration on the on-axis scintillation index is quite different from that of the positive spherical aberration. In weak turbulence, the positive spherical aberration results in a decrease of the on-axis scintillation index on propagation, but the negative spherical aberration results in an increase of the on-axis scintillation index when the propagation distance is not large. In particular, in weak turbulence the negative spherical aberration may cause peaks of the on-axis scintillation index, and the peaks disappear in moderate and strong turbulence, which is explained in physics. The strong turbulence leads to less discrepancy among scintillations of Gaussian beams with and without spherical aberration.     

Scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams

By using the Rytov method, we formulate and numerically evaluate the scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams in weak atmospheric turbulence. Our results indicate that at on-axis positions, Laguerre Gaussian beams with zero angular mode number will have less scintillations than fundamental Gaussian beams, where the amount of scintillations will further decrease with rising radial mode number. When off-axis positions are considered, this situation reverses however, and the scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams become generally higher than the fundamental Gaussian beam. Plotted against the source size, the on-axis scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams fall below the fundamental Gaussian beam, following the same trend as the fundamental Gaussian beam all throughout the source size range examined.     

Scintillation calculations for partially coherent general beams via extended Huygens–Fresnel integral and self-designed Matlab function

We present scintillation calculations in weak atmospheric turbulence for partially coherent general beams based on the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral and a Matlab function designed to handle expressions both of the average intensity and the average squared intensity. This way, the integrations are performed in a semi-analytic manner by the associated Matlab function, and this avoids lengthy, time-consuming and error prone hand derivations. The results are obtained for the partially coherent fundamental and higher-order sinusoidal and annular Gaussian beams. By plotting the scintillation index against the propagation distance and source size, we illustrate the on-axis scintillation behaviors of these beams. Accordingly, it is found that within specific source and parameter ranges, partially coherent fundamental, higher-order sinusoidal and annular Gaussian beams are capable of offering less scintillations, in comparison to the fundamental Gaussian beam.     

Study of the turbulence and inner waves in the stratosphere based on the observations of stellar scintillations from space: A model of scintillation spectra

Abstract

Stellar scintillations observed from space through the atmosphere show that density inhomogeneities in the stratosphere are stretched along the Earth's surface. This is true for vertical scales above dozens of metres. The observations reveal the existence of locally isotropic small-scale structure with fluctuation sizes up to fractions of a metre. The subject of this paper is to find out how the rotation of inhomogeneities with respect to the passing ray affects scintillations. Another subject of this study is chromatic aberration in the atmosphere which distorts the scintillation spectra. Numerical modelling within the weak-fluctuation approximation showed that the characteristic value of the anisotropy parameter is equal to the square root of the Earth's radius divided by the atmospheric scale. After the anisotropy exceeds this value, the growth of scintillation variance quickly becomes saturated. Chromatic aberration suppresses the high-frequency branch of the scintillation spectrum. However, information on the structure of isotropic fluctuations with scales up to the Fresnel radius is retained in scintillation spectra for oblique occultations. The model of composing blocks is suggested to develop the approximation for a three-dimensional fluctuation spectrum in the stratosphere. Parameters of these blocks can be determined from the set of measured scintillation spectra.     

Laguerre-Gaussian beam scintillation on slant paths

Scintillation evaluations for Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams for slant paths are made using Rytov approximation. On- and off-axis scintillation is formulated and calculated up to several tens of kilometers of slant distances for different zenith angles. Scintillation index variations against radial receiver point and different source sizes are also investigated. In all cases evaluated, it is found that LG beams with higher radial mode numbers result in less scintillation than Gaussian beam. Kolmogorov spectrum function is utilized in the scintillation calculations.