Vol. 49, Issue 1, pp. 75-88

Abstract

In the present paper, investigation on the polarization and coherence fluctuations of a flat-topped array beam in non-Kolmogorov atmospheric optics links has been presented. For this purpose, the spectral degree of polarization and coherence at the receiver plane is analytically formulated via the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral and the unified theory of polarization and coherence. The influences of the laser beam parameters and the power law exponent that describes the non-Kolmogorov spectrum of the statistical propagation properties of a partially coherent flat-topped array laser beam has been studied in detail. For the employed parameters, it can be concluded that the increase in the structure constant of turbulence (which is equivalent to the increase in turbulence strength) leads to a fast reduction in the spectral degree of coherence. Moreover, when the power law exponent is 3.1, the spectral degree of coherence exhibits a minimum value in comparison with the Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence.