Influence of coma aberration on the laser beam quality in the atmosphere

Abstract

For the nonlinear beam propagation case, the influence of coma aberration on the beam quality is studied when a laser beam propagates upwards through Earth’s inhomogeneous atmosphere. The coma aberration results in a degradation of the beam quality. However, the influence of coma aberration on the beam quality becomes weak because of the nonlinear self-focusing effect in the atmosphere. In particular, a laser beam with coma aberration propagates along a curve path, which may be useful to avoid the obstacles in the path. Furthermore, the expression of the maximum intensity position at the space-debris target is obtained. On the other hand, for the laser beam with coma aberration, the optimal intensity at the space-debris target is also investigated, and the expression of the optimal initial beam power is also obtained. As the coma aberration becomes worse, the optimal intensity decreases but its optimal initial beam power increases.