Experiments have been carried out to study the nonlinear distortion of a laser beam due to absorption by aerosol particles in the air. A 15minus;W 10.6minus;mgr; beam was passed through a 1.5minus;m cell containing a carbon aerosol in air at STP, and various measurements of the distorted beam profile were made. The data show that aerosol absorption can lead to severe nonlinear distortion and that, for the regime in which the beam transit time is long compared to the interparticle thermal diffusion time, this distortion is qualitatively similar to that produced by molecular absorption, but has a magnitude somewhat below that predicted by conventional thermal blooming theory.
展开▼
