We wish to report a typographical error made in the preparation of our manuscript. Specifically, on line 10 of the second paragraph of page 5, we quote values of the parameters that we use to simulate the turbulence. The distances we quote are = z 171.7 1 m and = z 1.538 2 m. The first value is correct, but the second value should read = z 769 2 m. The correct value was used in our laboratory studies, and thus the conclusions of the paper are not modified.We thank Jeffery H Shapiro of MIT for pointing out to us an inconsistency in our published paper, which we subsequently traced to the incorrect value of z 2 quoted in the text.
AbstractWe describe a procedure by which a long (≳1 km) optical path through atmospheric turbulence can be experimentally simulated in a controlled fashion and scaled down to distances easily accessible in a laboratory setting. This procedure is then used to simulate a 1 km long free-space communication link in which information is encoded in orbital angular momentum spatial modes. We also demonstrate that standard adaptive optics methods can be used to mitigate many of the effects of thick atmospheric turbulence.