Propagation characteristics of aberrant stochastic electromagnetic beams in a turbulent atmosphere

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of stochastic electromagnetic beams with astigmatic aberration propagating through a turbulent atmosphere. Taking the electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beam (GSM beam) as an example, the analytic expressions for the intensity and the degree of polarization of the beams propagating through the turbulent atmosphere are derived. It is shown that the intensity distribution and the degree of polarization of the GSM beam in the turbulent atmosphere are severely influenced by the astigmatism coefficient, as well as by the correlation property and the atmospheric turbulence. We show that when beams with astigmatic aberration propagate in a turbulent atmosphere, the beams become asymmetric in the near field and turn out to be symmetric after a quite long distance propagation in the turbulent atmosphere.