Two-deformable-mirror concept for correcting scintillation effects in laser beam projection through the turbulent atmosphere

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Abstract
A two-deformable-mirror concept for correcting scintillation effects in laser beam projection through the turbulent atmosphere is presented. This system uses a deformable mirror and a Fourier-transforming mirror to adjust the amplitude of the wave front in the telescope pupil, similar to kinoforms used in laser beam shaping. A second deformable mirror is used to correct the phase of the wave front before it leaves the aperture. The phase applied to the deformable mirror used for controlling the beam amplitude is obtained with a technique based on the Fienup phase-retrieval algorithm. Simulations of propagation through a single turbulent layer sufficiently distant from the beacon observation and laser beam transmission aperture to cause scintillation shows that, for an ideal deformable-mirror system, this field-conjugation approach improves the on-axis field amplitude by a factor of approximately 1.4 to 1.5 compared with a conventional phase-only correction system.