title: Bit error rate of focused Gaussian beams in weak oceanic turbulence: comment.
abstract: Recent calculations [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A31, 1963 (2014)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.31.001963] of the scintillation index of focused beams did not take into account the second order of the perturbation theory, and therefore led the author to erroneous conclusions regarding dependence of the scintillation index for the focused beams on the aperture size. The log-normal intensity probability distribution used for the Bit Error Rate calculations in [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A31, 1963 (2014)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.31.001963] is also invalid for the wide focused beams. As a result, most of the conclusions of [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A31, 1963 (2014)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.31.001963] are incorrect.
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Charnotskii