Optical air waveguides in strong turbulence

Abstract

Filament-generated air waveguides offer a route to low loss long-distance optical transport, but their viability in atmospheric turbulence has remained uncertain. Here, we demonstrate with experiments and simulations that guided beams in air waveguides can overcome prior estimated turbulence limits by orders of magnitude in the refractive index structure parameter C_n^2; turbulent index fluctuations much larger than the waveguide index contrast average out along the propagation path. Instead, turbulence imposes two distinct limits: scattering of the guided field beyond the waveguide acceptance aperture and, more importantly at atmospheric strengths, scintillation of the waveguide-forming beam. Scaling of experimentally validated models indicates that filament-generated air waveguides remain viable over kilometer-scale paths under strong near-ground turbulence. Our results establish turbulence limits for long-range optical guiding in the atmosphere.