Fast and accurate simulation of the turbulent phase screen using fast Fourier transform

Abstract

Abstract.This work describes an accurate method for simulating turbulent phase screens. The phase screen is divided into a fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based screen and a tilt screen. The simulation of the FFT-based screen is different from that of the standard method. In the simulation, the discrete power spectrum of the turbulence is obtained from the discrete Fourier transform of the phase autocorrelation matrix, not from the theoretical power spectrum. This method avoids the drawbacks of the undersampling of the low frequency and high frequency components which occurs in the standard FFT-based method. The maximum error in the phase structure function can be reduced to <0.13%, and the additional execution time increases by only several percents. This method is only suitable for square screens.