Free-space optical communications using encoding of data on different orbital-angular-momentum modes

Asher J. Willner; Yongxiong Ren; Guodong Xie; Long Li; Yinwen Cao; Zhe Zhao; Peicheng Liao; Zhe Wang; Yan Yan; Nisar Ahmed; Cong Liu; Moshe Tur; Alan E. Willner

doi:10.1117/12.2225375

15 March 2016 Free-space optical communications using encoding of data on different orbital-angular-momentum modes

Asher J. Willner, Yongxiong Ren, Guodong Xie, Long Li, Yinwen Cao, Zhe Zhao, Peicheng Liao, Zhe Wang, Yan Yan, Nisar Ahmed, Cong Liu, Moshe Tur, Alan E. Willner

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9739, Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXVIII; 97390J (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2225375
Event: SPIE LASE, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Free-space optical communications can play a significant role in line-of-sight links. In general, data can be encoded on the amplitude, phase, or temporal position of the optical wave. Importantly, there are environments for which ever-more information is desired for a given amount of optical energy. This can be accomplished if there are more degrees-of-freedom that the wave can occupy to provide higher energy efficiency for a given capacity (i.e., bits/photon). Traditionally, free-space optical links have used only a single beam, such that there was little opportunity for a wave to occupy more than one spatial location, thereby not allowing the spatial domain to be used for data encoding. Recently, space- and mode-multiplexing has been demonstrated to simultaneously transmit multiple data-carrying free-space beams. Each spatially overlapping mode was orthogonal to other modes and carried a unique amount of orbital-angular-momentum (OAM). In this paper, we consider that OAM modes could be a data-encoding domain, such that a beam could uniquely occupy one of many modes, i.e., 4 modes would provide 4 possible states and double the bits of information for the same amount of energy. In the past, such OAM-based encoding was shown at kHz data rates. We will present the architecture and experimental results for OAM-based data encoding for a free-space 1.55-μm data link under different system parameters. Key features of the results include: (a) encoding on several modes is accomplished using a fast switch, and (b) low bit-error-rates are achieved at >Gbit/s, which is orders-of-magnitude faster than previous results.

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Asher J. Willner, Yongxiong Ren, Guodong Xie, Long Li, Yinwen Cao, Zhe Zhao, Peicheng Liao, Zhe Wang, Yan Yan, Nisar Ahmed, Cong Liu, Moshe Tur, and Alan E. Willner "Free-space optical communications using encoding of data on different orbital-angular-momentum modes", Proc. SPIE 9739, Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXVIII, 97390J (15 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2225375

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