Spreading of spatially partially coherent polychromatic beams in atmospheric turbulence

Taking the polychromatic Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam as a typical example of spatially partially coherent polychromatic beams, the spreading of polychromatic GSM beams in atmospheric turbulence is studied. The mean-squared width of polychromatic GSM beams in turbulence is derived by using the effective source and the strong fluctuation models. It is shown that the same result is obtained using both the models. The diffraction, atmospheric turbulence and beam polychroism result in a spreading of polychromatic GSM beams. If the scaling law fails, the spreading of polychromatic GSM beams increases with increasing bandwidth Γ, but the influence of Γ on the spreading of polychromatic GSM beams becomes small as the structure constant Cn2 of the refractive index and spatial correlation parameter α increase. The spreading of polychromatic GSM beams increases as Cn2 increases and α decreases. Spatially partially coherent polychromatic beams are less sensitive to the effects of atmospheric turbulence than spatially fully coherent polychromatic beams.