Multimodal sensing of underwater optical turbulence using beams carrying orbital angular momentum, part 1: statistical analysis.

Authors

Owen O'Malley, Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic, Daisy Dastrup, Nathaniel Ferlic, Martin Lavery, Vasanthi Sivaprakasam, K Peter Judd

Published in

Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision. Volume 43. Issue 7. Pages C93-C104. Jul 01, 2026.

Abstract

We present a comprehensive experimental study investigating orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams for sensing underwater optical turbulence strength using multimodal optical measurements. Synchronized measurements of pupil plane intensity, focal plane intensity, and mode-sorter spectra were collected in a Rayleigh-Bénard convection tank across three turbulence strengths, ranging from Cn2=1.96×10^-10 to 2.06×10^-9m^-2/3. The pupil plane scintillation index provided the best discrimination between turbulence conditions, with comparable performance across OAM modes. Focal plane beam wander showed a monotonic increase with turbulence strength across all OAM modes. The mode-sorter results varied with the OAM mode, with modes ℓ=2 and ℓ=4 yielding greater separation in the mode spreading due to the turbulence. Our results demonstrate that the pupil plane scintillation across all OAM modes tested captures the most relevant information for discriminating between optical turbulence strengths, validating structured light as a versatile probe for environmental sensing.

PMID:
42863039
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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