Average irradiance and polarization properties of a radially or azimuthally polarized beam in a turbulent atmosphere

Abstract

Analytical formulas are derived for the average irradiance and the degree of polarization of a radially or azimuthally polarized doughnut beam (PDB) propagating in a turbulent atmosphere by adopting a beam coherence-polarization matrix. It is found that the radial or azimuthal polarization structure of a radially or azimuthally PDB will be destroyed (i.e., a radially or azimuthally PDB is depolarized and becomes a partially polarized beam) and the doughnut beam spot becomes a circularly Gaussian beam spot during propagation in a turbulent atmosphere. The propagation properties are closely related to the parameters of the beam and the structure constant of the atmospheric turbulence.

Elegant Laguerre–Gaussian beam in a turbulent atmosphere

“…free-space optical communications, imaging system and remote sensing [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. The propagation properties including averaging intensity, spreading and scintillation of an SLGB in a turbulent atmosphere have been investigated in [2,3,48] and it has been found that SLGB has an advantage over the Gaussian beam for reducing turbulence induced intensity fading in free-space communication systems.…”

Degree of paraxiality of cylindrical vector partially coherent Laguerre–Gaussian beams

“…Up to now, several theoretical models (e.g., Laguerre-Gaussian model, Bessel-Gaussian and Modified BesselGaussian models) which are all the solutions of Maxwell's equation have been proposed to describe the CV beams [8][9][10], and much work has been devoted to experimental achievement of the CV beams including active and passive technique [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Meanwhile, the study of the paraxial or nonparaxial propagation and tight focusing properties of the CV beams remain of continued interest in optics [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Cai et al analyzed the average intensity and polarization properties of radially or azimuthally polarized beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence [17].…”

“…Meanwhile, the study of the paraxial or nonparaxial propagation and tight focusing properties of the CV beams remain of continued interest in optics [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Cai et al analyzed the average intensity and polarization properties of radially or azimuthally polarized beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence [17]. The nonparaxial propagation properties of radially polarized LG beams were investigated in [18].…”

Two-dimensional polarization distribution controller based on variable retarder array

“…Radial polarization distributed beams can be used in particle acceleration [1,2], high-solution optical imaging systems [3], manipulation of particles [4] and laser machining [5]. Radial and azimuthal polarization distributed beams propagating through turbulent atmosphere have been investigated for further applications [6]. Azimuthal polarization distributed beams are also utilized in the hyper numerical aperture immersion lithographic machines [7,8].…”