Spreading and directionality of partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence

The closed-form expression for the mean-squared beam width of partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian (H-G) beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence is derived. The influence of turbulence on the spreading of partially coherent H-G beams is studied quantitatively by examining the mean-squared beam width. It is found that the smaller the coherence length sigma(0) of the source is, and the larger the beam order m and the wavelength lambda are, the less partially coherent H-G beams are affected by the turbulence, although the beams with smaller sigma(0), larger m, and larger lambda have greater spreading in free space. In addition, it is shown that two partially coherent H-G beams may generate the same angular spread and that there exist equivalent partially coherent H-G beams that may have the same directionality as a fully coherent Gaussian beam in free space and also in turbulence. The results are illustrated by examples, and a comparison with previous work is also made. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.