Phase-correction of turbulent distortions of an optical wave propagating under conditions of strong intensity fluctuations

Phase correction of a plane wave and a spatiolimited beam propagating through a turbulent layer of atmosphere were considered. The required adaptive corrector element size and the system bandwidth were found by numerical simulation. These requirements were determined to be the same as for a weak-intensity scintillation approximation. The size of the required segmented mirror element was found to be equal to Fried length r(0), whereas the tolerable time lag was r(0)/V, where V is the wind velocity. However, the local slope sensors then became impractical, as did tip-tilt correction over the corrector subapertures. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.