Spiral spectrum of a Laguerre-Gaussian beam propagating in anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulent atmosphere along horizontal path

Close to the ground, it is generally known that atmospheric turbulence exhibits strong anisotropy, which affects the performance of applications such as free-space optical (FSO) communication. In this paper, we establish a theoretical model for calculating the spiral spectrum, also called the orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum, of a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam after propagation through anisotropic turbulence along a horizontal link. This model isolates the effects of anisotropy from other parameters of the turbulence. On the basis of this model, the effects of the anisotropy on the probability density of the OAM spectrum and its corresponding modal crosstalk are studied through numerical examples. Our simulation results show that the width of the OAM spectrum will increase or slightly decrease depending on the specific nature of the anisotropy. In addition, it is demonstrated that the inner scale is more likely to cause modal crosstalk than the outer scale. Some strategies to reduce modal crosstalk in anisotropic turbulence are also discussed. Our results may be useful in OAM-based FSO communication at ground level. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement