Scintillations of higher order laser beams in anisotropic atmospheric turbulence

The scintillation index of higher order laser beams is examined when such beams propagate in anisotropic atmospheric turbulence. Anisotropy is introduced through non-Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence. The scintillation index results are obtained by employing the Rytov method solution; thus the results are valid for weak anisotropic atmospheric turbulence and for horizontal links. Variations in the scintillations are shown for various higher order laser modes against the changes in the optical source size, power law exponent of anisotropic non-Kolmogorov spectrum, anisotropic factors, and link length. Our results can be used in the design of optical wireless communication systems used between airplanes.