The Propagation of Vortex Beams in Random Mediums

Abstract

Vortex beams acquire increasing attention due to their unique properties. These beams have an annular spatial profile with a dark spot at the center, the so-called phase singularity. This singularity defines the helical phase structure which is related to the topological charge value. Topological charge value allows vortex beams to carry orbital angular momentum. The existence of orbital angular momentum offers a large capacity and high dimensional information processing which make vortex beams very attractive for free-space optical communications. Besides that, these beams are well capable of reducing turbulence-induced scintillation which leads to better system performance. This chapter introduces the research conducted up to date either theoretically or experimentally regarding vortex beam irradiance, scintillation, and other properties while propagating in turbulent mediums.