Annular beam propagation through turbulence: Wave optics study of intensity and scintillation properties

The analytical theory of the propagation of annular Gaussian beams through turbulence is briefly reviewed in this work. Wave (physical) optics simulations are implemented for various scenario parameters under weak to strong fluctuation conditions. Comparisons of the analytic and simulation beam intensity profiles show remarkable agreement. In weak turbulence, scintillation index results are also consistent. The wave optics simulation allows examination of the scintillation index under strong turbulence conditions, for which the analytic theory is lacking. A performance metric is implemented that incorporates both the on-axis intensity value and scintillation index. We find the performance of annular beams in propagating through weak turbulence can be better than the performance of a comparable classical Gaussian beam. However, the annular beam may not provide significant improvement under strong fluctuation conditions.