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.