BER of flat-topped Gaussian beam in slant path turbulent atmosphere

Abstract

Based on the theory of optical wave propagation in the slant path and the ITU-R turbulence structure constant model which is dependent on altitude, the on-axis scintillation index of the flat-topped Gaussian beam at the receiver plane in slant path turbulence was given by using Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence power spectrum model. The influences of the link altitudes, atmospheric refractive index structure constant C 0 at the ground，the source size and the beam order on scintillation index of the flat-topped Gaussian beam are discussed in detail. The result shows that the scintillation index increased first and then decreased with the increase of the beam order. The advantage of a flat-topped Gaussian beam over a single Gaussian beam is restricted to small source sizes, which is consistent with the case of the horizontal path. To find the average bit error rate under weak slant path turbulence, the log-normal distribution model of the intensity fluctuation was used. The influence of beam order and source size on BER was discussed. The result indicates that the smaller sized flat-topped Gaussian beam will bring average bit error rate advantage over the same size Gaussian beam. Our results correctly reduce to the result of the horizontal path with atmospheric structure constant fixed.