Study of Reducing Atmospheric Turbulence-Induced Beam Wander of a Twisted Electromagnetic Elliptical Vortex Beam

• Published in: Photonics Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 492
• Main Authors: Huang, Kai, Xu, Yonggen, Li, Yuqiang, Cao, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Atmospheric turbulence; beam wander; Coherence length; Distance measurement; Distribution functions; Electron beams; Ellipticity; Free-space optical communication; Lasers; Lidar; non-Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence; Parameters; Propagation; Remote sensing; Topology; twisted electromagnetic elliptical vortex beam; Vortices; Wigner distribution
• ISSN: 2304-6732; 2304-6732
• DOI: 10.3390/photonics11060492

We derive the analytical expressions for root-mean-square (rms) beam wander (BW) and relative BW of a twisted electromagnetic elliptical vortex (TEEV) beam propagating through non-Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence with the help of the extended Huygens–Fresnel principle and the second-order moments of the Wigner distribution function (WDF). Our numerical findings demonstrate that the BW of a TEEV beam with a small ellipticity, a large topological charge as well as a small waist width and initial coherent length is less affected by the turbulence. It can be also found that the effect of turbulence with a larger outer scale of turbulence, a generalized exponent parameter, and a generalized structure parameter on BW is more obvious. It is interesting to find that the effect of atmospheric turbulence on BW for a TEEV beam can be effectively reduced by regulating jointly the symbols and sizes of the twisted factor and topological charge. Therefore, modulation of the structure parameters of a TEEV beam provides a new way to mitigate turbulence-induced beam wander. Our work will be useful for free-space optical communications, remote sensing, and lidar distance measurement.