Abstract

The wave structure function associated with atmospheric turbulence is important in the effective design of telescopes for coherent optical receivers. This paper describes a method of measurement of the wave structure function by employing an already existing optical receiver. The aperture of this receiver’s telescope is masked by an opaque screen with two small holes. It is then shown that when the incident beam obeys Gaussian statistics, the receiver’s A.M. output can be simply related to the wave structure function of the incident beam.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Mutual Coherence Function of a Finite Optical Beam and Application to Coherent Detection

R. F. Lutomirski and R. G. Buser
Appl. Opt. 12(9) 2153-2160 (1973)

Photocounting Array Receivers for Optical Communication Through the Lognormal Atmospheric Channel. 1: Optimum and Suboptimum Receiver Structures

M. C. Teich and S. Rosenberg
Appl. Opt. 12(11) 2616-2624 (1973)

Propagation of Laser Radiation in a Turbulent Atmosphere

S. S. Khmelevtsov
Appl. Opt. 12(10) 2421-2433 (1973)

Optimal heterodyne detector array size for 1-μm coherent lidar propagation through atmospheric turbulence

Nobuo Sugimoto, Kin Pui Chan, and Dennis K. Killinger
Appl. Opt. 30(18) 2609-2616 (1991)

Heterodyne Doppler 1-μm lidar measurement of reduced effective telescope aperture due to atmospheric turbulence

Kin Pui Chan, Dennis K. Killinger, and Nobuo Sugimoto
Appl. Opt. 30(18) 2617-2627 (1991)