Free space optical (FSO) satellite communications has very attractive properties for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). The quantum channel loss and noise are major factors in setting the maximum achievable secure key rate of QKD systems. Primarily for a LEO satellite node and the BB84 protocol a number of technologies are proposed to reduce the quantum channel loss and noise. These technologies apply to the receiver side of the QKD link, the Optical Ground Terminal. It is shown that an optical beam shaper to optimize fiber mode matching, dedicated thermo-mechanical design to reduce misalignment induced by temperature gradients and an Adaptive Optics (AO) system to counteract optical turbulence effects can result in a significant reduction of loss and background noise. A breadboard verification experiment shows that using an medium-size AO system can maintain a fiber coupling efficiency up to 40%. The developed technologies have a general applicability with respect to satellite orbit and QKD protocol used.
Optical satellite communication is growing fast and among various applications it requires higher throughput optical feeder links. Optical feeder links for satellite communication necessitate very high data throughput, up to 1 Terabit/s and beyond. Amongst several multiplexing strategies, dense wavelength division holds a key position to enable overall throughput rates above 1 Terabit/s. As a consequence, hardware architectures capable of handling high throughput links must be devised. Complementary to the high throughput requirement, the devices should also cope with the high optical power levels needed in optical ground stations. Combination of spatial aperture multiplexing and free space bulk optics configurations of multiplexers with transmission diffraction gratings are presented as possible concepts. Besides wavelength multiplexing, it is essential to include the beam propagation effects in the performance analysis, since this may affect the overall feeder link properties. A modelling framework is presented that covers the multiplexing behavior as well as the beam propagation of the transmission gratings based concept. The modelling framework based on first principles of optical diffraction is general, and independent of the grating choice. The results suggest that the design of a free space bulk multiplexer for optical feeder link must be approached already at system level. Decisions about telescope sizing, channels distribution and modulation formats may affect the performance of the multiplexer, resulting in severe effects on the link performance. The work discusses the effect of each design parameter and proposes design guidelines for high power satellite communication beam multiplexing.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.