Non-Gaussian statistics of partially coherent light in atmospheric turbulence*

Abstract

We derive theoretically and verify experimentally a concise general expression for the normalized intensity correlations (IC) of partially coherent light in a weak atmospheric turbulence in the fast detector measurement regime. The derived relation reveals that the medium turbulence acts, in general, as an additional noise source enhancing the IC of partially coherent beams. The maximum of the beam IC is, in general, enhanced, causing the fields to exhibit super-Gaussian statistics. On the other hand, the relation indicates that turbulence-induced noise is negligible for sufficiently low coherence light, which reveals the condition for the turbulence-free correlation imaging.