Lensless ghost imaging of a partially coherent vortex source in atmospheric turbulence

The image quality of ghost imaging was mainly degraded because of the beam wander and scintillation caused by atmospheric turbulence. References show that the vortex phase can effectively deduce the negative effects and improve the critical resolution and image quality of ghost imaging in free space which can be used to improve its quality through turbulence. In this study, we investigate the quality of the ghost imaging of a Gaussian Schell-model vortex source with different topological charges and coherent widths during propagation through atmospheric turbulence with different strengths using numerical simulations. The results show that the image quality is improved with increasing topological charge in turbulence, which was further proved via experimental measurements. Our study can be applied to free space optical communication and information encryption based on ghost imaging systems to reduce the influence of turbulence.