It is well known that laser beams spread as they propagate through free space due to natural diffraction, and that there is additional spreading when optical waves propagate through atmospheric turbulence. Previous studies on Gaussian beams have mainly involved the lowest order mode (zero- order). The study of higher order mode Gaussian beams has involved Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams for rectangular and cylindrical geometry respectively. These studies have developed expressions for the field and intensity in free space in addition to developing new definitions of beam size in the receiver plane for the higher order modes. In this paper we calculate the mean intensity of higher order mode Gaussian beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence, and, based on previously developed definitions for beam radius, we calculate the additional beam spreading due to random media. It is shown that higher order mode Gaussian beams experience less percentage of additional broadening due to atmospheric fluctuations than the zero order mode beams.

Date Published: 22 January 2002
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4489, Free-Space Laser Communication and Laser Imaging, (22 January 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.453223

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4489:
Free-Space Laser Communication and Laser Imaging
David G. Voelz; Jennifer C. Ricklin, Editor(s)