Propagation of Polarization Modulated Beams Through a Turbulent Atmosphere

Abstract

Abstract : The defeat/mitigation of atmospheric/ionospheric beam jitter, and beam redirection by polarization modulation (POLMOD) depends on the modulation rate/frequency, d /dt or d n/dtn or rate of phase modulation of inter-orthogonal-beam phase, exceeding that of molecular relaxation times of the media though which a beam passes. A polarization modulated beam was achieved by modulating the phase between two orthogonal beams that were combined. The media substituting for the atmosphere and ionosphere were: a water vapor chamber, heated air, and static and rotated phase plates. The results indicate that POLMOD achieves partial mitigation of spatial and temporal jitter. In the case of temporal jitter with the medium represented by a phase plate, POLMOD reduces temporal jitter up to a maximum of 50%; and the spatial jitter up to a maximum of 33%. The partial success of mitigating jitter due to propagation through other media is also reported here.