Influence of the statistics of an incident light wave on the changes in its spatial coherence under conditions of thermal self-interaction

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the spatial coherence of an optical beam and its changes under conditions of transient thermal self-interaction. Basic dependences were established for the kinetics of the spatial coherence of a randomly modulated optical beam when the statistical properties of the radiation incident on a nonlinear medium vary. In the theoretical analysis the perturbation method was used for weak fluctuations of the field and the Monte Carlo method was used to analyze strong fluctuations. The results of the numerical calculations and the data from the laboratory experiments showed good qualitative agreement.