Laser beam self-focusing in the atmosphere

We propose to exploit a self-focusing effect in the atmosphere to assist delivering powerful laser beams from orbit to the ground. We demonstrate through numerical modeling that when the self-focusing length is comparable with the atmosphere height the spot size on the ground can be reduced well bel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 102; no. 23; p. 233902
Main Authors Rubenchik, A M, Fedoruk, M P, Turitsyn, S K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 12.06.2009
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Summary:We propose to exploit a self-focusing effect in the atmosphere to assist delivering powerful laser beams from orbit to the ground. We demonstrate through numerical modeling that when the self-focusing length is comparable with the atmosphere height the spot size on the ground can be reduced well below the diffraction limits without beam quality degradation. The density variation suppresses beam filamentation and provides the self-focusing of the beam as a whole. The use of light self-focusing in the atmosphere can greatly relax the requirements for the orbital optics and ground receivers.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.233902