Scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams

Abstract

By using the Rytov method, we formulate and numerically evaluate the scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams in weak atmospheric turbulence. Our results indicate that at on-axis positions, Laguerre Gaussian beams with zero angular mode number will have less scintillations than fundamental Gaussian beams, where the amount of scintillations will further decrease with rising radial mode number. When off-axis positions are considered, this situation reverses however, and the scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams become generally higher than the fundamental Gaussian beam. Plotted against the source size, the on-axis scintillations of Laguerre Gaussian beams fall below the fundamental Gaussian beam, following the same trend as the fundamental Gaussian beam all throughout the source size range examined.