Expansion of a Focused Laser Beam in the Turbulent Atmosphere

Abstract

This work examines the expansion of a focused laser beam in the turbulent atmosphere. The formulation is based on Green's theorem and the valid assumption that the turbulent atmosphere is a forward-scatter medium for wavelengths of interest (0.6 μ < λ < 11 μ). The main results are: (1) the spot size at the free-space focal plane in the presence of turbulence is independent of the aperture radius, and is only weakly dependent on the wavelength, (2) the focal plane can be significantly shifted for small aperture radii, short wavelengths, and long free-space focal lengths, (3) the effect of the atmosphere is pronounced only close to the free-space focus and very far away, and (4) the turbulent atmosphere has a stronger effect on weakly focused beams rather than strongly focused beams, except very close to the free-space focus, where the effect is more pronounced for strongly focused beams.