Angular spectrum representation for the propagation of arbitrary coherent and partially coherent beams through atmospheric turbulence.

An angular spectrum representation is applied for a description of statistical properties of arbitrary beamlike fields propagating through atmospheric turbulence. The Rytov theory is used for the characterization of the perturbation of the field by the atmosphere. In particular, we derive expressions for the cross-spectral density of a coherent and a partially coherent beam of arbitrary type in the case when the power spectrum of atmospheric fluctuations is described by the von Karman model. We illustrate the method by applying it to the propagation of several model beams through the atmosphere.