Propagation characteristics of radial phase-locked discrete vector beam generated from a Gaussian Schell-Model laser array in atmospheric turbulence

Abstract

In this paper, combining the advantages of partial coherence, vector beam, and laser array in better resistance to atmospheric turbulence, high capacity, and high output power, we proposed a radial phase-locked discrete vector beam generated from a Gaussian Schell-Model (GSM) laser array (i.e., phase-locked GSM discrete vector beam array) and theoretically studied its propagation characteristics in atmospheric turbulence. The analytical expressions for spectral intensity, spectral degree of coherence (DOC), and spectral degree of polarization (DOP) of a phase-locked GSM discrete vector beam array were derived based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. And also, based on numerical simulation, we investigated the influence of atmospheric and laser parameters on the propagation properties in detail. The results show that the beam profile will gradually evolve from hollow structure distribution, then form a flat-topped beam and finally present the Gaussian-like distribution; the spectral DOC exhibits decaying oscillation analogous to under-damping vibration; a dip appears in the distribution of the spectral DOP. The evolution rate of spectral intensity, oscillation amplitude, and period of spectral DOC and dip width of spectral DOP are determined by propagation distance, refraction structure constant, beam waist, spatial correlation length, and the number of beamlets. More importantly, by analyzing Stokes parameters, different initial polarization distributions correspond to different crosslines of S1/S0, and even with the increase of the propagation distance, the crosslines of S1/S0 still show similar performance. This work may provide novel thoughts and methods to improve propagation performance and benefit potential applications in free-space optical communication.