Structured light under turbulence

Abstract

Structured light has emerged as a promising resource for high-capacity and secure free-space optical communication, where atmospheric turbulence remains a major source of signal degradation. In this work, we investigate the resilience of different transverse mode structures of an optical beam with respect to the random action of turbulence. A spatial light modulator (SLM) is programmed to apply amplitude and phase modulation corresponding to the desired transverse mode, which is then transmitted through a turbulent medium emulated by a second SLM. Laguerre-Gauss, Hermite-Gauss, and Airy beams are investigated through the resulting intensity distributions measured with a camera. Different figures of merit are used to evaluate and compare the resilience of these modes.