Influence of the radial number of Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beams on their propagation in a turbulent medium

TL;DR

This study investigates how the radial number of Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beams affects their stability and distortion during propagation through turbulent media, using numerical modeling and mode decomposition techniques.

Contribution

It reveals the impact of radial and azimuthal mode numbers on beam stability and demonstrates that increasing the radial number reduces transverse profile distortion.

Findings

Higher radial numbers improve beam stability in turbulence.

Decomposition with Zernike polynomials highlights mode disparities.

Radial number increase minimizes beam distortion.

Abstract

The paper considers the propagation of Laguerre-Gaussian beams in a turbulent gas medium. As demonstrated by numerical modelling and the decomposition of Laguerre-Gaussian modes according to the basis of orthogonal Zernike polynomials, disparities in the stability of Laguerre-Gaussian modes with differing radial and azimuthal numbers are evident. The demonstration is made of the minimization of the distortion of the transverse beam profile with an increase in the radial number.