Effect of source spatial partial coherence on the angle-of-arrival fluctuations for free-space optics links

Abstract

The dependence of angle-of-arrival fluctuations on source coherence for free-space optics links in a turbulent atmosphere is examined. A monochromatic beam is taken, and the variation of the angle-of-arrival fluctuations for a spatially partially coherent source is investigated. Results are obtained for the currently used free-space optics links, which use infrared wavelengths of 0.85 and 1.55 mu m with link lengths of 3 and 5 km. The angle-of-arrival fluctuations are calculated and plotted against normalized source size and inner and outer scales of turbulence. It is observed that the angle-of-arrival fluctuations show behavior that is essentially independent of the degree of source partial coherence. In fact, as the source size increases, this dependence seems to almost disappear. It is further observed that mean square angle-of-arrival fluctuations become larger at greater propagation distances, at smaller inner scales of turbulence, and at larger outer scales of turbulence. However, the numerical values of the angle-of-arrival fluctuations found for all cases are not expected to degrade substantially the performance of a practical optical receiver having a field of view in the order of several milliradians. Our results presented here are compared with the existing theoretical and experimental work, and the range of applicability of our formulation is discussed. (C) 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.