Optimal beam forming for laser beam propagation through random media

Focusing optical beams on a target through random propagation media is very important in many applications such as free space optical communications and laser weapons. Random media effects such as beam spread and scintillation can degrade the optical system’s performance severely. Compensation schemes are needed in these applications to overcome these random media effects. In this research, we investigated the optimal beams for two different optimization criteria: one is to maximize the concentrated received intensity and the other is to minimize the scintillation index at the target plane. In the study of the optimal beam to maximize the weighted integrated intensity, we derive a similarity relationship between pupil-plane phase screen and extended Huygens-Fresnel model, and demonstrate the limited utility of maximizing the average integrated intensity. In the study of the optimal beam to minimize the scintillation index, we derive the firstand second-order moments for the integrated intensity of multiple coherent modes. Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian modes are used as the coherent modes to synthesize an optimal partially coherent beam. The optimal beams demonstrate evident reduction of scintillation index, and prove to be insensitive to the aperture averaging effect.