Vol. 3, issue 02, article # 4

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of theoretical studies on the propagation through the atmosphere of wide-aperture laser beams (i.e., those whose diffraction length is much larger than the thickness of the active atmospheric layer with thermal blooming taken into account. The average energy characteristics of the beams in the observation plane are calculated for both partially and completely coherent laser radiation. The results obtained for both of these cases are shown to be in good mutual agreement over a wide range of laser radiation output parameters.