Dependence of the beam wander of an airy beam on its kurtosis parameter in a turbulent atmosphere

•A general expression of the relation between the beam wander and kurtosis parameter for an Airy beam is obtained.•The relation shows that the general regularity is simple and fixed.•The physical origin is the internal topological structure of the Airy beams.

Beam wander, which is affected by many factors, is an important characteristic of laser beams in a turbulent atmosphere. In the present letter the influence of an Airy beam׳s kurtosis parameter on its beam wander has been studied. The interesting result is that the beam wander of an Airy beam has a simple and fixed rule versus its kurtosis parameter, regardless of the propagation distance, characteristic scales of the beam, inner scales of turbulence, wavelength and the initial coherence length. It can be used in the control of beam wander for Airy beam in practice, such as in the free-space-optical communication and laser defense.