High-sensitivity direct detection optical communication system that operates in sunlight

Liang Chen; L. S. Alvarez; Bing Yin; Thomas M. Shay

doi:10.1117/12.184671

16 August 1994 High-sensitivity direct detection optical communication system that operates in sunlight

Liang Chen, L. S. Alvarez, Bing Yin, Thomas M. Shay

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2123, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies VI; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.184671
Event: OE/LASE '94, 1994, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

In freespace laser communication systems, optical background noise rejection is a very important issue. We have designed and built a building to building direct detection optical communication system that uses a Faraday Anomalous Dispersion Optical Filter (FADOF) in the receiver. The FADOF is a narrow bandpass optical filter, which can provide a background noise rejection of 10⁵ approximately 10⁶, while transmitting the signal with up to 80% efficiency. The FADOF also has a signal bandwidth that is variable between 0.5 GHz and 5 GHz, a field-of-view that is flat over +/- 20 degree(s). FADOFs offer new capabilities to freespace laser communication by effectively reducing the solar background radiation that reaches the photodetector. Using the FADOF receiver, we have demonstrated that 27nW of received signal power gives a bit error rate of 10^-6 (limited by the photoreceiver electronic noise) independent of solar noise up to 0.15Watt. We also repeated these measurements under the same operation conditions after replacing the FADOF with an interference filter. The experiments showed three orders higher background noise rejection capability for the FADOF receiver.

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Liang Chen, L. S. Alvarez, Bing Yin, and Thomas M. Shay "High-sensitivity direct detection optical communication system that operates in sunlight", Proc. SPIE 2123, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies VI, (16 August 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.184671

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