Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Beaconless Auto-Alignment for Single-Wavelength 5 Tbit/s Mode-Division Multiplexing Free-Space Optical Communications |
| Authors: |
Li, Yiming, Fernandes, Gil, Benton, David, Billaud, Antonin, Patel, Mohammed, Ellis, Andrew |
| Publication Year: |
2024 |
| Collection: |
Physics (Other) |
| Subject Terms: |
Physics - Optics, Electrical Engineering and Systems Science - Signal Processing |
| More Details: |
Mode-division multiplexing has shown its ability to significantly increase the capacity of free-space optical communications. An accurate alignment is crucial to enable such links due to possible performance degradation induced by mode crosstalk and narrow beam divergence. Conventionally, a beacon beam is necessary for system alignment due to multiple local maximums in the mode-division multiplexed beam profile. However, the beacon beam introduces excess system complexity, power consumption, and alignment errors. Here we demonstrate a beaconless system with significantly higher alignment accuracy and faster acquisition. This system also excludes excess complexity, power consumption, and alignment errors, facilitating simplified system calibration and supporting a record-high 5.14 Tbit/s line rate in a single-wavelength free-space optical link. We anticipate our paper to be a starting point for more sophisticated alignment scenarios in future multi-Terabit mode-division multiplexing free-space optical communications for long-distance applications with a generalised mode basis. |
| Document Type: |
Working Paper |
| Access URL: |
http://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20723 |
| Accession Number: |
edsarx.2405.20723 |
| Database: |
arXiv |
