Propagation characteristics of a combined vortex beam in anisotropic plasma sheath turbulence

The propagation properties of the high-power combined vortex beam (VB) through anisotropic plasma sheath turbulence (PST) are studied analytically. Analytical expressions for the average intensity and power-in-the-bucket (PIB) of the high-power combined VB in the PST are derived based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle and the anisotropic power spectrum of the refractive index fluctuation in the PST. The influences of the topological charge, outer scale, anisotropy index, and electron density fluctuations on the average intensity are investigated. The results indicate that the maximum average intensity with a topological charge of 3 is reduced by 68% compared to a topological charge of 1; the ability of high-power combined VBs to resist turbulence increases as the topological charge decreases. The smaller the outer scale and anisotropy index, the greater the electron density fluctuations, and the greater the average intensity decay. Furthermore, the analytical expression of the PIB at the target plane is obtained. The changes of the PIB with PST parameters indicate that the stronger turbulence, the smaller the value of the PIB.