Changes of the centroid position of laser beams propagating through an optical system in turbulent atmosphere

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of atmospheric turbulence, initial field amplitude, optical system and thermal blooming on the centroid position of laser beams propagating through the atmosphere are studied in detail. With the average over the ensemble of the turbulent medium, the centroid position is independent of turbulence. However, the centroid position depends on the centroid positions at the source plane and in the far-field, and the elements of ray-transfer-matrix. The physical reason why the centroid position changes on propagation is that the far-field centroid position is not located on the propagation z-axis due to the field phase distortion and the decentred intensity. The centroid position of laser beams with the spherical aberration and the decentred intensity is examined analytically. When laser beams with the decentred intensity propagate through the atmosphere, the effect of thermal blooming on the centroid position is investigated by using the four-dimensional (4D) computer code of the time-dependent propagation of high power laser beams through the atmosphere.