Bimorph vs stacked actuator deformable mirror for laser beam focusing through a moderately scattering medium

Bimorph and stacked actuator deformable mirrors were used to increase the efficiency of focusing of partially coherent laser radiation propagated through the scattering suspension that was equivalent to the middle-density fog layer with the length ranging from 300–500 meters up to 5 kilometers. We used Shack-Hartmann sensor to measure the averaged wavefront distortions and CCD camera to estimate the intensity distribution of the focal spot in the far-field. Numerical and experimental investigations of focusing improvement demonstrated that it is possible to increase the peak intensity of the focal spot by more than 60 %.