Vol. 26, issue 05, article # 3

Abstract:

A problem of transportation of high-power laser radiation energy at a wavelength of 10.6 μm in the atmosphere is theoretically considered under the conditions of development of its thermal and wind nonlinearities. The power characteristics of continuous and pulse-periodic radiations during propagation along a surface kilometer-long atmospheric path at sharp focusing onto receiver are studied. The main factors having the largest effect on distribution of the influencing radiation are determined. It is established that one succeeds in reducing of undesirable effect of thermal defocusing using a train of low-power short pulses with rather high repetition rate at the expense of the effect of light-induced "blooming" of the gas medium. The questions of scaling of the optical paths from the viewpoint of their equivalence in appearing of thermal nonlinearity are discussed.

Keywords:

laser radiation, propagation, absorption, thermal lens, defocusing, modeling