Vortex carrying circular airy beam in free space optics and aberration effects in turbulent atmosphere

In this paper, a detailed analysis of the distribution of intensity of vortex circular airy beam (CAB) propagating in a turbulent atmosphere applying Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction integral equations is presented. A turbulent atmosphere consists of different types of aberrations. The existence of aberrations in an atmosphere under turbulence plays a vital part in affecting the quality of optical beams. Here, the effect of different aberrations such as z-tilt, defocus, astigmatism, coma, and spherical aberration on the intensity distribution and structure of vortex CAB at two different propagation distances under four different atmospheric turbulent conditions with topological charge m = 1 were investigated. The two different propagation distances which we have used in this scenario are z = 2000 m and z = 5000 m. A numerical analysis was performed for each aberration, and corresponding 3d and 2d plots were plotted. The results show that spherical aberration has the highest effect than the other four aberrations on the intensity distribution of vortex CAB and z-tilt aberration has the least effect. Also, the analysis shows that the quality of the beam reduces with an increase in propagation distance. A comparison study was also done to identify the difference between vortex CAB and non-vortex CAB. Based on the comparison results, it is revealed that the maximum intensity distribution and quality of beam could be achieved more with vortex CAB than with non-vortex CAB.