Scintillation calculations for partially coherent general beams via extended Huygens–Fresnel integral and self-designed Matlab function

Abstract

We present scintillation calculations in weak atmospheric turbulence for partially coherent general beams based on the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral and a Matlab function designed to handle expressions both of the average intensity and the average squared intensity. This way, the integrations are performed in a semi-analytic manner by the associated Matlab function, and this avoids lengthy, time-consuming and error prone hand derivations. The results are obtained for the partially coherent fundamental and higher-order sinusoidal and annular Gaussian beams. By plotting the scintillation index against the propagation distance and source size, we illustrate the on-axis scintillation behaviors of these beams. Accordingly, it is found that within specific source and parameter ranges, partially coherent fundamental, higher-order sinusoidal and annular Gaussian beams are capable of offering less scintillations, in comparison to the fundamental Gaussian beam.