Orbital angular momentum for turbulence mitigation in long free-space optical communication links

Abstract The ability of laser beams carrying orbital angular momentum to reduce the scintillation level of Gaussian beam propagating in atmospheric turbulence is numerically investigated. The effect of topological charge, beam waist, operating wavelength and also the receiver radius on the scintillation indices is examined in detail. It is shown that the Gaussian beam carrying orbital angular momentum has a priority over a fundamental Gaussian beam in communication links longer than 2.5 Km. It is clear that Gaussian beams carrying orbital angular momentum in the cases when having a small beam waist and operating at a high wavelength are able seriously to reduce the scintillation index. Accordingly, the presented results will be significant for designing optical communication links that use laser beams carrying orbital angular momentum.