Model experiments on position stabilization of a repetitively-pulsed CO2-laser beam on a distant detector with distortions in the propagation path

The results of demonstration experiments on the stabilization of a focused beam of radiation from a repetitively-pulsed CO2 laser on a laboratory path , simulating distortions on an approximately 3 km long real path in the sur face layer of the atmosphere, are presented. Under conditions of time-varyi ng optical distortions in the path, it is shown experimentally that the met hod of beam stabilization according to the position of a bright speckle, as proposed at the Scientific Research Institute of Laser Physics and impleme nted at low power level in V. E. Sherstobitov, V. I. Kuprenyuk, D. A. Gorya chkin et al., Proc. SPIE 3684, 51 (1999), increases the efficiency of high- power CO2-laser radiation delivery on a diffraction-size detector by a fact or of 3-4 as compared with no stabilization. (C) 1999 The Optical Society o f America. [S1070-9762(99)00411-X].