Authors

L. C. Andrews; R. L. Phillips; R. J. Sasiela;R. R. Parenti

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Opt. Eng.

Keywords

scintillation; Rytov theory; beam wander; Strehl ratio; RANDOMLY INHOMOGENEOUS-MEDIUM; LASER-BEAM; TURBULENT ATMOSPHERE; POINTING JITTER; OPTICAL BEAM; PROPAGATION; INDEX; PERFORMANCE; SATELLITE; PATHS; Optics

Abstract

First-order weak-fluctuation Rytov theory predicts that the longitudinal (on-axis) component of the scintillation index of an uplink collimated beam will become significantly smaller as the size of the transmitter aperture increases up to around 100 cm. However, the results of recent computer simulations are at odds with this behavior, and we believe that this discrepancy is due to the fact that the conventional Rytov theory does not correctly account for the effects of beam wander on the scintillation index. We present a theoretical structure that accurately describes far-field irradiance fluctuations caused by uncorrected beam wander. This new theory is validated by demonstrating excellent agreement between the predicted scintillation index and computer code results for both tracked and untracked beams. For many applications of practical interest, such as free-space optical communications, a good understanding of the time-average Strehl ratio is also essential simulation results for this parameter are presented and shown to be in good agreement with the theory.

Journal Title

Optical Engineering

Volume

45

Issue/Number

7

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

12

WOS Identifier

WOS:000239347200028

ISSN

0091-3286

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