Impact of atmospheric turbulence on coherent beam combining for laser weapon systems

The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining (CBC) depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere. In this study, an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining (PCBC) for assumed coherence coefficients between beams in a CBC lattice was developed....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDefence technology Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 1160 - 1167
Main Authors Jabczyński, Jan K., Gontar, Przemysław
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.08.2021
KeAi Communications Co., Ltd
Subjects
Atmosphere turbulences
Beam combining
Coherence
Laser beams
Atmosphere turbulences
Laser beams
Coherence
Beam combining
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Summary:The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining (CBC) depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere. In this study, an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining (PCBC) for assumed coherence coefficients between beams in a CBC lattice was developed. The Kolmogorov model of atmospheric turbulence and the Hufnagel-Valley model of Cn2 dependence on atmospheric parameters were implemented. Novel simplified metrics were proposed to assess the CBC performance. Several beam profiles (super-Gaussian, truncated Gaussian, etc.) and geometries were analyzed in terms of maximal intensity in the far field. An approximate formula for PCBC efficiency dependent on the Fried radius was proposed. The results of CBC modeling were compared to those of the Gaussian beam propagation model in a turbulent atmosphere. The dependence of CBC performance on the Cn2 parameter, range, and elevation angle was analyzed. It could be concluded that the application of CBC for medium and long range propagation is impractical without an effective adaptive optics system.
ISSN:2214-9147
2214-9147
DOI:10.1016/j.dt.2020.06.021