Irradiance tailoring as a method of reducing thermal blooming in an absorbing medium

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Abstract
This paper evaluates the impact of irradiance tailoring as a method of reducing the refractive effects on a laser beam caused by heating of the medium (atmosphere) by the laser beam. The principal idea is to create, by irradiance shaping, only correctable phase changes along the propagation path. A promising irradiance distribution, which accomplished this in the presence of transverse flow (wind), is linear in the flow direction and constant perpendicular to the flow. The irradiance distribution creates quadratic phase changes in the atmosphere, which can be precorrected by a cylindrical optical system. This distribution is evaluated both theoretically and exprimentally, demonstrating significant improvement of the focal point irradiance.