Comparison of wave structure functions for intensity profiles

Abstract

We give a list of available wave structure functions (WSFs) of a spherical wave, simultaneously providing some derivation details. The aim is to assess the impact of these WSFs on intensity profiles of various beams propagating in turbulence. For comparisons, coherent and partially coherent fundamental Gaussian, hyperbolic, sinusoidal and annular Gaussian beams are chosen. Comparisons are made by calculating the difference between the intensity profiles of the analytic solution that uses the normalized WSF with quadratic approximation and the intensity profiles obtained by numerically solving the quadruple extended Huygens–Fresnel integral containing other WSFs. The graphical results show that in general the differences arising from the use of different WSFs are not substantial. Such differences become much greater however toward the complete incoherence limit and at relatively higher structure constant values. Even then, at these extremes, the receiver intensity levels are much reduced, making such big differences immaterial.