Quality factor of partially coherent Airy beams in a turbulent atmosphere

Abstract

The quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere is investigated with the help of the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral formula and the Wigner distribution. From the numerical results, based on the analytical formula, we find that increasing the inner scale or decreasing the structure constant of the refractive index fluctuations of the turbulent atmosphere tends to decrease the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere. Moreover, it is found that increasing the scale factor and wavelength or decreasing the coherent length of a partially coherent Airy beam can also be used to decrease the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere. However, the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere has a maximum when the exponential truncation factor of a partially coherent Airy beam is 0.63. Our results will be useful in long-distance free-space optical communications and laser defense.