Design and realization of a conventional carbon dioxide laser was performed. Gas composition and gas pressure effects on laser output power were studied. Effects of input electrical power and current on laser power were also investigated. Beam profiling of the laser beam was performed by pinhole method. Laser beam parameters like beam divergence, beam propagation factor were measured. These properties were extracted from focusing a laser beam in near field and performing a number of cuts across the beam cross-section and measuring the beam diameter at these points. Diameter measurements were obtained by knife edge method. Laser beam parameters were obtained for three different power laser beams in two axes across the beam. Found parameters were compared with regard to beam power and beam cross-section axis. Also possibility of using the obtained laser beam in material processing was investigated.

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The performance of lasercom systems operating in the atmosphere is reduced by optical turbulence, which causes irradiance fluctuations in the received signal. The result is a randomly fading signal. Fade statistics for lasercom systems are determined from the probability density function (PDF) of the irradiance fluctuations. The expected number of fades per second and their mean fade time require the joint PDF of the fluctuating irradiance and its time derivative. Theoretical integral expressions, as well as closed form, analytical approximations, were developed for the joint PDF of a gamma-gamma distributed irradiance and its time derivative, and the corresponding expression for the expected number of fades per second. The new approximation for the conditional PDF of the time derivative of a gamma-gamma irradiance is a zero mean Gaussian distribution, with a complicated irradiance depending variance. Fade statistics obtained from experimental data were compared to theoretical predictions based on the lognormal and gamma-gamma distributions. A Gaussian beam wave was propagated through the atmosphere along a horizontal path, near ground, in the moderate-to-strong optical turbulence. To characterize the propagation path, a new method that infers atmospheric propagation parameters was developed. Scintillation theory combined with a numerical scheme was used to infer the structure constant, Cn2, the inner scale and the outer scale from the optical measurements. The inferred parameters were used in calculations for the theoretical PDFs. It was found that fade predictions made by the gamma-gamma and lognormal distributions provide an upper and lower bound, respectively, for the probability of fade and the number of fades per second for irradiance data collected in the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime. Aperture averaging effects on the PDF of the irradiance fluctuations were investigated by comparing the irradiance distributions for the three receiver apertures at two different values of the structure parameter and, hence, different values of the coherence radius. For the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime, the gamma-gamma distribution provides a good fit to the irradiance fluctuations collected by finite-sized apertures that are significantly smaller than the coherence radius. For apertures larger than or equal to the coherence radius, the irradiance fluctuations appear to be lognormally distributed.

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La turbulence atmosphérique générée par une différence de température entre le sol et l'atmosphère, provoque des effets sur les ondes optiques et présente un grand intérêt scientifique depuis de nombreuses années. Les distorsions du front d'onde optique induites par le résultat de la turbulence atmosphérique génèrent un étalement du faisceau au-delà de celles dues à la diffraction pure, à des variations aléatoires de la position du centre de gravité du faisceau, et à une répartition aléatoire de l'énergie du faisceau qui conduit à des fluctuations de l’irradiance.Ces effets ont des conséquences sur les communications optiques en espace libre (OFS), la désignation de cible, le LiDAR hyper spectral, et d'autres applications qui nécessitent la transmission d'ondes optiques dans l'atmosphère sur une grande portée.Tout au long de cette thèse, nous introduisons le concept général de la turbulence, en se concentrant sur la turbulence atmosphérique. Diverses expériences ont été réalisées, par exemple, la propagation de deux faisceaux parallèles dans les conditions de l'optique géométrique pour l'étude des paramètres de turbulence optiques. La même configuration optique a été utilisé pour étudier la meilleure fréquence d'échantillonnage pour la turbulence optique. En outre, nous avons indirectement mesuré l'évapotranspiration de couverts végétaux, pour laquelle nous tenons compte des fluctuations de l'indice de réfraction de la turbulence à travers les variations d’intensités du faisceau laser. Enfin, certaines expériences qui considèrent de nouvelles formes spatiale ou spectrale du faisceau ont également été développées, telles que le saut de mode et un super continuum spectral respectivement, montrant une réduction expérimentale des fluctuations de l'irradiance induite par la turbulence. Ces faisceaux ont une meilleure performance comme émetteur d'informations pour la communication optique en espace libre. / Atmospheric turbulence, generated by a differential temperature between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere, causes effects on optical waves that have been of great interest to scientists for many years. Wave front distortions in the optical wave induced by atmospheric turbulence result in a spreading of the beam beyond that due to pure diffraction, random variations of the position of the beam centroid, and a random redistribution of the beam energy within a cross section of the beam leading to irradiance fluctuations. Those effects have far-reaching consequences on astronomical imaging, free space optics (FSO) communications, remote sensing, laser satellite communication, astronomical imaging, adaptive optics, target designation, hyperspectral LiDAR, and other applications that require the transmission of optical waves through the atmosphere. Throughout this thesis, we introduce a globally concept of turbulence, focusing in atmospheric turbulence.Diverse experiments have been carried out, for instance, the propagation of two parallel thin beams under geometrical optics condition for studying the parameters of optical turbulence, and besides, the same optical configuration was used to investigate the best sampling rate for optical turbulence. Furthermore, we have measured evapotranspiration by remote sensing, in which we have heeded the fluctuations of the refractive index through the intensities of the turbulence. Finally, experiments which involve a new beam are also developed, such as phase-flipped Gaussian beam. This beam shows an experimental reduction on its irradiance fluctuations induced by the turbulence, which means that it has a high performance in optical communications. The experimental reduction aforementioned is proved through the comparison with the theory developed.