We introduce the Stokes scintillation indices and the corresponding overall Stokes scintillations for quantitatively studying the fluctuations of both the intensity and polarization of an optical vector beam transmitting through the atmospheric turbulence. With the aid of the multiple-phase-screen method, we examine the Stokes fluctuations of a radially polarized beam in Kolmogorov turbulence numerically. The results show that the overall scintillation for the intensity distribution is always larger than the overall scintillation for the polarization-dependent Stokes parameters, which indicates that the polarization state of a vector beam is stabler than its intensity distribution in the turbulence. We interpret the results with the depolarization effect of the vector beam in turbulence. The findings in this work may be useful in free-space optical communications utilizing vector beams.

结构光场的空域调控包括振幅、相位、偏振、相干度等丰富自由度，对其自由度的单一或联合调控引发了一系列新奇物理效应，在新型结构光场构建及多种领域中具有重要应用。相比于完全相干光场，部分相干光场在抵抗散斑噪声和大气湍流扰动等方面具有独特优势。近年来，具有新型相干结构的部分相干光束在大气传输、光学加密与成像、信息鲁棒传输、高质量光束整形等领域有着重要研究价值。本文详细综述了具有新型相干结构部分相干光场的理论构建与实验合成的研究进展，并重点介绍了新型相干结构光场在复杂环境中的鲁棒传输特性及其在光学加密、成像、鲁棒信息传输及光束整形中的应用研究进展。研究表明，新型相干结构光场调控不仅提供了一种有效抵抗复杂环境扰动的有效手段，而且丰富了光场调控技术在多种领域中的应用。最后，对新型相干结构调控技术发展趋势及潜在应用前景进行了展望。