Vortex inverted pin beams: Mitigation of scintillations in strong atmospheric turbulence

TL;DR

This paper introduces vortex inverted pin beams with orbital angular momentum that significantly reduce scintillations in strong atmospheric turbulence, enhancing free-space optical communication reliability.

Contribution

It demonstrates that vortex inverted pin beams further suppress scintillations compared to previous beam types in strong turbulence conditions.

Findings

Reduced scintillation index in strong turbulence

Enhanced link stability in optical communication

Superior performance over Gaussian beams

Abstract

We recently introduced a new class of optical beams with a Bessel-like transverse profile and increasing beam width during propagation, akin to an "inverted pin". Owing to their specially engineered distribution, these beams have shown remarkable performance in atmospheric turbulence. Specifically, inverted pin beams were found to have reduced scintillation index as compared to collimated or focused Gaussian beams as well as other types of pin beams especially in moderate to strong turbulence. In this work, we demonstrate that inverted pin beams carrying orbital angular momentum can further suppress intensity scintillations in moderate to strong irradiance fluctuation conditions. Our results can be useful in improving the performance and link availability of free-space optical communication systems.