Coherence vortices of partially coherent beams in the far field

Based on the propagation law of cross-spectral density function, studied in this paper are the coherence vortices of partially coherent, quasi-monochromatic singular beams with Gaussian envelope and Schell-model correlator in the far field, where our main attention is paid to the evolution of far-field coherence vortices into intensity vortices of fully coherent beams. The results show that, although there are usually no zeros of intensity in partially coherent beams with Gaussian envelope and Schell-model correlator~ zeros of spectral degree of coherence exist. The coherence vortices of spectral degree of coherence depend on the relative coherence length, mode index and positions of pairs of points. If a point and mode index are kept fixed, the position of coherence vortices changes with the increase of the relative coherence length. For the low coherent case there is a circular phase dislocation. In the coherent limit coherence vortices become intensity vortices of fully coherent Laguerre-Gaussian beams.

Turbulence-induced changes in degree of polarization,degree of coherence and spectrum of partially coherent electromagnetic beams

Based on a recently formulated unified theory of coherence and polarization, a method is described to study turbulence-induced changes in the polarization, the coherence and the spectrum of partially coherent electromagnetic beams on propagation. The electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beam is taken as a typical example of partially coherent electromagnetic beams, and the closed-form expressions for the degree of polarization, the degree of coherence and the spectrum of electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence are derived in the quadratic approximation of Rytov＇s phase structure function. Some interesting results are obtained, which are illustrated by numerical examples and are explained in physics.

Can two partially coherent cosh-Gaussian beams generate far fields with the same spectral degree of coherence?

Taking partially coherent cosh-Gaussian （ChG） beams as an example of more general partially coherent beams, we have studied the spectral degree of coherence of partially coherent ChG beams in the far field. It is shown that, unlike Gaussian Schell-model （GSM） beams, in the strict sense there do not exist two partially coherent ChG beams which can generate far fields with the same spectral degree of coherence. However, under certain conditions it is possible to find two partially coherent ChG beams with the same spectral degree of coherence in the far field.

Terahertz shaping technology based on coherent beam combining

The generation of terahertz(THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of industry. However, the poor directionality of the THz wave radiation generated by this method is not conducive to THz wave applications. By controlling the morphology of the ultrafast laser-excited plasma filament and its electron density distribution through coherent beam combining technology, we achieve direct THz beam shaping and are able to obtain THz wave radiation of Gaussian or arbitrary transverse distribution. The novel experimental approach proposed in this paper opens up the research field of direct THz wave shaping using plasma. Moreover, it innovates multi-parameter convergence algorithms and, by doing so, has the potential to find beam patterns with higher energy conversion efficiency and break the energy limit of THz waves emitted by lasers at high power.

Tightly focused properties of a partially coherent radially polarized power-exponent-phase vortex beam

A partially coherent beam called a radially polarized multi-Gaussian Schell-model power-exponent-phase vortex beam is introduced. Both the analytical formula of the beam propagating through the high-numerical-aperture objective lens based on the vectorial diffraction theory, and the cross-spectral density matrix of the beam in the focal region are derived. Then,the tight focusing characteristics of the partially coherent radially polarized power-exponent-phase vortex beam are studied numerically, and the intensity distribution, degree of polarization and coherence of the beams in the focusing region with different topological charge, power order, beam index and coherence width are analyzed in detail. The results show that the contour of the spot becomes clearer and smoother with the increase in the beam index, and the focal fields of different structures that include the flattened beam can be obtained by changing the coherence width. In addition, by changing the topological charge and power order, the intensity can gather to a point along the ring. These unique properties will have potential applications in particle capture and manipulation, especially in the manipulation of irregular particles.

Internal phase control of fiber laser array based on photodetector array

Coherent beam combining(CBC) of fiber laser array is a promising technique to realize high output power while maintaining near diffraction-limited beam quality. To implement CBC, an appropriate phase control feedback structure should be established to realize phase-locking. In this paper, an innovative internal active phase control CBC fiber laser array based on photodetector array is proposed. The dynamic phase noises of the laser amplifiers are compensated before being emitted into free space. And the static phase difference compensation of emitting laser array is realized by interference measurement based on photodetector array. The principle of the technique is illustrated and corresponding simulations are carried out, and a CBC system with four laser channels is built to verify the technique. When the phase controllers are turned on, the phase deviation of the laser array is less than λ/20, and ~ 95% fringe contrast of the irradiation distribution is obtained. The technique proposed in this paper could provide a reference for the system design of a massive high-power CBC system.

Consistency of the directionality of partially coherent beams in turbulence expressed in terms of the angular spread and the far-field average intensity

Under the quadratic approximation of the Rytov＇s phase structure function, this paper derives the general closed-form expressions for the mean-squared width and the angular spread of partially coherent beams in turbulence. It finds that under a certain condition different types of partially coherent beams may have the same directionality as a fully coherent Gaussian beam in free space and also in atmospheric turbulence if the angular spread is chosen as the characteristic parameter of beam directionality. On the other hand, it shows that generally, the directionality of partially coherent beams expressed in terms of the angular spread is not consistent with that in terms of the normalized far-field average intensity distribution in free space, but the consistency can be achieved due to turbulence.

Propagation of the off-axis superposition of partially coherent beams through atmospheric turbulence

The propagation properties of the off-axis superposition of partially coherent beams through atmospheric turbulence and their beam quality in terms of the mean-squared beam width w（z） and the power in the bucket （PIB） are studied in detail, where the effects of partial coherence, off-axis beam superposition and atmospheric turbulence are considered. The analytical expressions for the intensity, the beam width and the PIB are derived, and illustrative examples are given numerically. It is shown that the maximum intensity/max and the PIB decrease and w（z） increases as the refraction index structure constant Cn^2 increases. Therefore, the turbulence results in a degradation of the beam quality. However, the resulting partially coherent beam with a smaller value of spatial correlation parameter γ and larger values of separate distance Xd and beam number M is less affected by the turbulence than that with a larger value of y and smaller values of Xd and M. The main results obtained in this paper are explained physically.

Scintillation of partially coherent Gaussian–Schell model beam propagation in slant atmospheric turbulence considering inner- and outer-scale effects

Based on the modified Rytov theory and the international telecommunication union-radio （ITU-R） slant atmospheric structure constant model, the uniform scintillation index of partially coherent Gaussian-Schell model （GSM） beam propa- gation in the slant path is derived from weak- to strong-turbulence regions considering inner- and outer-scale effects. The effects of wavelength of beams and inner- and outer-scale of turbulence on scintillation are analyzed numerically. Compar- ison between the scintillation of GSM beams under the von Karman spectrum and that of beams under the modified Hill spectrum is made. The results obtained show that the scintillation index obtained under the von Karman spectrum is smaller than that under the modified Hill spectrum. This study can find theory bases for the experiments of the partially coherent GSM beam propagation through atmospheric turbulence.

Characteristics of a partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model beam propagating in slanted atmospheric turbulence

On the basis of the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle and the model of the refractive-index structure constant in the atmospheric turbulence proposed by the International Telecommunication Union-Radio Communication Sector,the characteristics of the partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model（GSM） beams propagating in slanted atmospheric turbulence are studied.Using the cross-spectral density function（CSDF）,we derive the expressions for the effective beam radius,the spreading angle,and the average intensity.The variance of the angle-of-arrival fluctuation and the wander effect of the GSM beam in the turbulence are calculated numerically.The influences of the coherence degree,the propagation distance,the propagation height,and the waist radius on the propagation characteristics of the partially coherent beams are discussed and compared with those of the fully coherent Gaussian beams.

Coherent beam combination of adaptive fiber laser array with tilt-tip and phase-locking control

We present an experimental study on tilt-tip（TT） and phase-locking（PL） control in a coherent beam combination（CBC） system of adaptive fiber laser array.The TT control is performed using the adaptive fiber-optics collimator（AFOC）,and the PL control is realized by the phase modulator（PM）.Cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT and PL using stochastic parallel gradient descent（SPGD） algorithm are investigated in this paper.Two-fiber-laser-,four-fiber-laser-,and six-fiber-laser-arrays are employed to study the TT and PL control.In the cascaded control system,only one high-speed CMOS camera is used to collect beam data and a computer is used as the controller.In a simultaneous control system one high-speed CMOS camera and one photonic detector（PD） are employed,and a computer and a control circuit based on field programmable gate array（FPGA） are used as the controllers.Experimental results reveal that both cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT using AFOC and PL using PM in fiber laser array are feasible and effective.Cascaded control is more effective in static control situation and simultaneous control can be applied to the dynamic control system directly.The control signals of simultaneous PL and TT disturb each other obviously and TT and PL control may compete with each other,so the control effect is limited.

Propagation properties of partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian beams through non-Kolmogorov turbulence

The propagation properties of partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian beams through non-Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence are studied. The effects of non-Kolmogorov turbulence and beam nonparaxiality on the average intensity evolution and the beam-width spreading are stressed. It is found that the evolution of the average intensity distribution and the beam-width spreading depends on the generalized exponent factor, namely, on the non-Kolmogorov turbulence strength for the paraxial case. For the non-paraxial case the effect of the turbulence is negiigibl% while the beam-width spreading becomes very large. The analytical results are illustrated numerically and interpreted physically.

Long-distance propagation of pseudo-partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model beams in atmospheric turbulence

Propagation properties of spatially pseudo-partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model beams through the atmo- spheric turbulence over a long-distance uplink path are studied by numerical simulation. A linear coordination trans- formation is introduced to overcome the window effect and the loss-of-resolution problem. The beam spreading, beam wandering, and intensity scintillation as functions of turbulence strength, source correlation length, and change fre- quency of random phase that models the partial coherence of the source are analyzed. It is found that the beam spreading and the intensity scintillation of the partially coherent beam are less affected by the turbulence than those of the coherent one, but it suffers from a more severe diffractive effect, and the change frequency of random phase has no evident influence on it. The beam wandering is insensitive to the variation of source correlation length, and decreases firstly then goes to a fixed value as the change frequency increases.

Tiled-aperture coherent beam combining of two high-power fibre amplifiers

We demonstrate coherent beam combining of two tiled-aperture single-frequency fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 29.65 W by using the multi-dithering technique. The two laser beams are packaged closely by using free-space mirrors side by side into a tiled-aperture with a near-field fill factor of 62%. Active phase control of the amplifier is performed on commercially available digital lock-in amplifiers. Experimental results show that the power contained in the main-lobe in closed-loop is 1.72 times greater than that in open-loop, which is 86% for the ideal case. The fringe contrast of the far-field fringe pattern is as high as 80% when the system is in closed-loop. The beam quality of the combined beam is computed to he BQ = 1.48. The whole system in closed-loop performs well in a long-time observation.

Scattering of a general partially coherent beam from a diffuse target in atmospheric turbulence

The second-order and fourth-order statistical moments of the speckle field from a diffuse target in atmospheric turbulence are studied which have great influence on the performance of lidar systems. By expanding a general rotationally symmetric beam as a sum of Gaussian-Schell model （GSM） beams, the mean intensity of the general beam propagating over a distance in an atmospheric turbulence is formulated. Expressions for the degree of coherence （DOC） and the normalized intensity variance of the scattered field of a general beam from a rough surface in turbulence are derived based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The general expressions reduce to the well-known forms for a GSM beam. Another example for the general beam used in this paper is the collimated flat-topped beam. The results of both kinds of beams show that the intensity profile on the target plane is a key factor affecting the statistical characteristics of the speckle field. A larger beam spot on the target plane induces a smaller coherence length and a smaller normalized intensity variance of the received field. As turbulence gets stronger, the coherence length becomes smaller, and the normalized intensity variance firstly increases and declines to unity finally.

The 260-W coherent beam combining of two compact fibre amplifier chains

Coherent beam combining of two fibre amplifier chains with a total power of 260 W in a compact system using the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is demonstrated. A 150 MHz linewidth fibre laser is built and introduced for high-power amplification to mitigate stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS）. Compact high-power amplifier chains are built with low power all-fibre system and high-power bulk free-optics fibre amplifiers. When the total power is about 260 W, active phase-locking of two high-power amplifiers is demonstrated using the SPGD algorithm. In closed-loop, the power in the main lobe increases 1.68 times, the visibility is increased from 0 to 0.62, and the phase residual error is less than λ/10.

Propagation of partially coherent beams carrying an edge dislocation through atmospheric turbulence along a slant path

This paper derives the explicit expressions for the average intensity, beam width and angular spread of Gaussian Schell-model （GSM） beams with edge dislocation propagating through atmospheric turbulence along a slant path. The propagation of GSM beams with edge dislocation through horizontal atmospheric turbulence can be treated as a special case through a slant one. The propagation properties of GSM beams with edge dislocation through slant atmospheric turbulence are studied, where the influence of edge dislocation parameters including the slope p and off-axis distance d on the spreading of GSM beams with edge dislocation in atmospheric turbulence is stressed. It shows that the spreading of the intensity profile of GSM beams with edge dislocation along a slant path is smaller than that along a horizontal path in the long-distance atmospheric propagation. The larger the slope ｜p｜ and the smaller the off-axis distance ｜d｜ are, the less the beam-width spreading and angular spread of GSM beams with edge dislocation are affected by turbulence. The CSM beams with edge dislocation is less affected by turbulence than that of GSM beams without edge dislocation. The results are illustrated numerically and their validity is interpreted physically.

Quantum polarization fluctuations of partially coherent dark hollow beams in non-Kolmogorov turbulence atmosphere

Non-classical polarization properties of dark hollow beams propagating through non-Kolmogorov turbulence are studied. The analytic equation for the polarization degree of the quantization partially coherent dark hollow beams is obtained.It is found that the polarization fluctuations of the quantization partially coherent dark hollow beams are dependent on the turbulence factors and beam parameters with the detection photon numbers. Furthermore, an investigation of the changes in the on-axis propagation point and off-axis propagation point shows that the polarization degree of the quantization partially coherent dark hollow beams presents oscillation for a short propagation distance and gradually returns to zero for a sufficiently long distance.

Focusing Properties of Partially Coherent Controllable Dark-Hollow Beams through a Thin Lens

Analytical propagation formulas are derived for partially coherent controllable dark-hollow beams （CDHBs） through a thin lens based on the generalized Huygens-Fresnel integral. The expressions of the position for maximum irradiance on-axis and the relative focal shift are evaluated by the analytical propagation formulas. Our numerical results show that both the relative focal shift and the effective beam width of focused partially coherent CDHBs are mainly determined by the initial transverse coherence width 6g and the Fresnel number Nw, which are also affected by the changes of both the dark-size adjusting parameter p and the order N of CDHBs.

Partially coherent nonparaxial modified Bessel-Gauss beams

The concept of partially coherent nonparaxial modified Bessel Gauss （MBG） beams is proposed. Based on the generalized Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral, the analytical propagation equations of nonparaxial MBG beams in free space are derived and analysed, and some special cases are discussed. In particular, under the paraxial approximation our results reduce to the corresponding paraxial ones. Numerical calculation examples are given to illustrate the dependence of intensity and spectral degree of coherence on the beam order m, ζ and f parameters, and to compare the difference between the paraxial and nonparaxial results.