Beam Wandering in the Atmosphere: The Effect of Partial Coherence

TL;DR

This paper investigates how partial coherence in laser beams can reduce beam wandering caused by atmospheric turbulence, using theoretical models and numerical analysis to quantify the effect.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical approach combining analytical and numerical methods to analyze the impact of partial coherence on beam wander in turbulence.

Findings

Partial coherence can decrease beam centroid variance

Theoretical models quantify the reduction effect

Applicability of the approach is discussed

Abstract

The effect of a random phase screen on laser beam wander in a turbulent atmosphere is studied theoretically. The method of photon distribution function is used to describe the photon kinetics of both weak and strong turbulence. By bringing together analytical and numerical calculations, we have obtained the variance of beam centroid deflections caused by scattering on turbulent eddies. It is shown that an artificial distortion of the initial coherence of the radiation can be used to decrease the wandering effect. The physical mechanism responsible for this reduction and applicability of our approach are discussed.