Beam Quality Factor and Its Effect on Laser Beam through Anisotropic Turbulence for OWC

For optical wireless communication (OWC), beam quality factor is used as an important parameter to evaluate the propagation of laser beam through atmospheric turbulence. The beam quality factor and its effect on laser beam are investigated using the generalized anisotropic non-Kolmogorov power spectrum such that anisotropy property of turbulence, general spectral power law, and turbulence inner and outer scales can be considered together. We derive new expressions of beam quality factor for the lowest-order Gaussian beam and higher-mode Hermite-Gaussian beam. The effect of beam quality factor on the beam intensity through turbulence is also analyzed. Numerical results are presented to exhibit influences of different turbulence parameters on the beam quality factor and further on the propagation of laser beam, which provides a better understanding for OWC over free space.