Analysis and simulation of turbulence effects on Gaussian beam propagation based on generalized modified atmospheric spectrum

Abstract

Atmospheric turbulence has been extensively studied for many years in physics and engineering disciplines. When a laser beam propagates through the atmosphere, it can be affected by different optical phenomena including scattering, absorption, and turbulence. Turbulence effect of the atmosphere results from changes of the refractive index such as different size eddies that affect optical wave propagation through the atmosphere. These changes of refractive index cause different variation for the propagating laser beam such as beam wandering, beam spreading, and image jitter. All these effects can severely influence the beam quality and decrease the performance efficiency of the system in some applications including free space optical communication, LIDAR-LADAR applications, and directed energy weapons systems [1-5]. Traditionally, the turbulence is of the Kolmogorov type. The Kolmogorov spectrum is with the power law value of 11/3. There are many spectra which have specific inner and outer scale like Tatarskii, von Karman, Kolmogorov and generalized modified spectra [6,7]. In this study, the generalized modified atmospheric spectra model is applied. We numerically and analytically perform the propagation behavior of Gaussian laser beam at different propagation distance. Also, we examine the influence of some parameters on beam propagation. We form a graphical user interface using MATLAB and perform all the simulations via the gui. All results are discussed and compared with literature.