Optimal vector beams maintaining robust intensity profile on propagation through turbulence

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that optical beams with C-point polarization singularities maintain a more stable intensity profile during propagation through turbulence-like conditions, due to their polarization and OAM diversity, outperforming other polarization states.

Contribution

The paper introduces the experimental observation that C-point singularity beams exhibit superior robustness in intensity profile stability during turbulent propagation, guided by their polarization and OAM properties.

Findings

C-point singularity beams show maximally robust intensity profiles.

Complementary speckle patterns with negative correlation are observed for certain OAM states.

C-point singularity outperforms other polarization states in turbulence conditions.

Abstract

We report experiments on propagation of scalar and vector optical beams through random phase screens mimicking turbulence and show that the intensity profile of the beam containing a C-point polarization singularity shows maximally robust behavior. This observation is explained in terms of the polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) diversity in the beam. The $l = 0$ and $l = 1$ OAM states whose vector combination leads to the C-point singularity are seen to produce complementary speckle intensity patterns with significant negative correlation on propagation through a random phase screen. This unique property of C-point singularity makes it superior to other inhomogeneous polarization states as demonstrated in our experiments. The results provide an important generic guideline for designing beams that can maintain optimally robust beam intensity profile on passing through random phase fluctuations and are expected to have a number of applications.