Study on the spatial coherence of vortex Gaussian beams passed atmospheric turbulence

In this paper, the spectral degree of coherence formula was derived by using the generalized Huygens-Fresnel principle and the method of Rytov phase structure function quadratic approximation. The spatial coherence of vortex Gaussian beams passed atmospheric turbulence was studied. It showed that the spatial coherence was mainly affected by the coherence of light source, the number of topological charges and the transmission distance. The distance of transmission was farther, the spatial coherence of beam was better. The number of topological charges were more, the spatial coherence of beam was better. In a certain transmission distance, the coherence of light source was better, the spatial coherence of beam was worse. In addition, there were coherent vortexes which spectral degree of coherence was zero after the partially coherent vortex beams getting through atmospheric turbulence transmission. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.