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Highlights • Propagation model of radially polarized vortex beams in atmospheric turbulence is established. • A radially polarized vortex beam can reduce beam spreading and wander effects in the atmosphere. • Polarization modulation can be an approach to mitigate turbulent effects on OAM-based systems. Abstract Adopting a vortex beam with poor coherence can reduce turbulence-induced beam spreading and wander effects in the atmosphere, but it intensifies the degradation rate of its beam profile from a doughnut shape into a Gaussian shape. Transmission quality of Orbital–angular–momentum (OAM) mode carried by a vortex beam is closely related to its evolution of intensity distribution. After appropriate polarization modulation, a radially polarized vortex beam has a better performance on the reduction of beam spreading and wander effects than its scalar counterpart. A radially polarized vortex beam can also lower the degradation rate of its beam profile and keep "OAM information" a longer distance. Therefore, appropriate polarization modulation can be an effective approach to mitigate the adverse turbulent effects on OAM-based systems operated in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical expressions of average intensity and long-term beam width for a radially polarized multi-Gaussian Schell-model (MGSM) beam in anisotropic atmospheric turbulence are developed based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The influences of anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence and source parameters on the average intensity, polarization and long-term beam spreading of radially polarized MGSM beam are examined in detail. The source correlations, free-space diffraction and turbulent effect jointly affect both the intensity and polarization profiles of the beam propagated in the atmosphere. As a radially polarized MGSM beam propagates in the atmosphere, increasing the associated beam order can lower the evolution rate from its flat-topped beam profile into a Gaussian beam profile because of the turbulent effect. Variations in the average intensity and long-term beam width are closely related to the propagation distance, power spectrum index, inner-scale, initial spatial coherence, and beam width. The atmospheric turbulence-induced beam spreading is generally suppressed with the enhanced anisotropy coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]