Autofocusing and Self-Healing Properties of Aberration Laser Beams in a Turbulent Media

Abstract

We present the autofocusing and self-healing properties of aberration laser beams (ALBs) in a turbulent media. The ALB is generated by a diffractive optical element (DOE) whose phase profile consists of radial and periodic angular dependence, and then propagated through a turbulent media under weak, moderate, and strong turbulence conditions. The theoretical calculations, numerical simulations, and experimental results are presented. The results show that the presence of turbulence leads to distortion in the spatial structure of ALBs, as well as causes beam wandering. However, the autofocusing properties of ALBs remain invariant. Further, ALBs also possess self-healing abilities in free space as well as in a turbulent media. The self-healing sustains reasonably well even when a large portion of ALB (approximately $60\mathrm{%}$) is truncated. The distance requires for the self-healing of truncated ALBs remains the same for various percentage of truncation. Particularly, for any amount of truncation up to approximately $60\mathrm{%}$, ALB self-heals by propagating up to autofocusing distance corresponding to a nontruncated beam.