Feasibility of optimization of thermal self interaction in a moving defocusing medium by amplitude–phase correction methods

An experimental investigation was made of the thermal self-interaction of light beams tracking along conies in a plane perpendicular to the beam axis. It was found that a parabolic tracking path, "open" in the upwind direction, was near-optimal from the point of view of the maximum localization of the intensity. A numerical study was made of the feasibility of using parabolically tracking beams in a combined amplitude–phase adaptive system for elimination of the thermal nonlinearity effects.