Influence of Atmospheric Turbulence on the Propagation of Partially Coherent Electromagnetic Flat-topped Beams

Based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle,the analytical expressions for the degree of polarization,the degree of coherence and the spectrum of partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams in turbulence are derived by using the quadratic approximation of Rytov's phase structure function.The influence of atmospheric turbulence on the propagation property is studied.The propagation property of electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model (EGSM) beams through atmospheric turbulence is just a special case.It is shown that the degree of polarization and coherence of partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams is independent of the bandwidth.After sufficient long propagation,the degree of polarization of partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams with different beam orders tend to the same value at the source plane due to turbulence.The turbulence makes the difference of the degree of coherence between partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams and EGSM beams decrease.The oscillatory behavior and phase singularities of the degree of coherence of partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams may disappear in the turbulence.The spectral transition of partially coherent electromagnetic flat-topped beams with better coherence may disappear because of turbulence.