On the possibility of using aerosol backscattering in the adaptive loop of atmospheric optical systems

The mean received power of partially coherent cw laser radiation scattered in the atmosphere is calculated depending on the spatial coherence of the initial field and the angular divergence of a laser beam formed by a circular output aperture. It is shown that due to diffraction on the circular aperture, the dependence of the mean radiation power on the divergence angle is nonmonotonic and has a maximum. The divergence angle corresponding to this maximum is determined by the spatial coherence of the initial field. The possibility of controlling the adaptive loop of the laser system by means of signals backscattered in the atmosphere is discussed.