Scintillation and bit error rate analysis of zero-order Bessel–Gauss beams in atmospheric turbulence based on the extended Rytov theory

Abstract

Free space diffraction causes the spreading of the received energy at the receiver and thus reduces the signal-to-noise ratio. Bessel–Gauss (BG) beams are considered physically realizable beams, which are robust to free space diffraction over finite propagation distances. Non-diffraction beams have proved useful in many applications, such as optical wireless communications (OWC) and non-linear optics. However, in turbulence BG-beams do suffer from turbulence-induced diffraction. The extended Huygens–Fresnel principle is the main tool of analysis under the effect of strong turbulence. However, the extended Rytov theory (ERT) method provides expressions for the small- and large-scale turbulence-induced signal fluctuations and hence is particularly suitable for statistical channel modeling. In this work, application of the ERT to BG-beams propagating through turbulence is carried out. Closed-form expressions for the induced on-axis small- and large-scale log-irradiance variances are derived. The resultant index of scintillation is analyzed. Then, the error performance of OWC is investigated for BG-beams combined with intensity modulation, M-ary phase shift keying, polarization shift keying, and single-input-multiple-output systems. Significant performance gains are reported compared to Gaussian beams.