Free-Space Optical Communication Using Non-Mode-Selective Photonic Lantern-Based Coherent Receiver

Abstract

A free-space optical communication system using non-mode-selective photonic lantern (PL) based coherent receiver is studied. Based on the simulation of photon distribution, the power distribution at the single-mode fiber end of the PL is quantitatively described as a truncated Gaussian distribution over a simplex. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for the communication system using PL based receiver are analyzed using different combining techniques, including selection combining (SC), equal-gain combining (EGC), and maximal-ratio combining (MRC). The integral solution, series lower bound solution and asymptotic solution are presented for bit-error rate (BER) of PL based receiver, single-mode fiber receiver and multimode fiber receiver over the Gamma-Gamma atmosphere turbulence channels.We demonstrate that the power distribution of the PL has no effect on the SNR and BER performance of the PL based receiver when MRC is used; and it only has limited influence when EGC is used. However, the power distribution of the PL can greatly affect the BER performance when SC is used. Besides, the SNR gains of the PL based receiver using EGC over single-mode fiber receiver and multimode fiber receiver are numerically studied under different imperfect device parameters; and the scope of application of the communication system is further provided.

The application of photonic lanterns in free space optical communications

“…The use of photonic lanterns for coherent modulation receiver systems has been explored through analysis in Refs. [10][11][12]. Coherent receiver systems require transitioning the light to a single mode fiber to preserve the coherence of the modes sent by the transmitter.…”

2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments

“…For example, the all-photonic flattener on a chip [41,42] may find application beyond astronomy for gain flattening [43,44], temporal pulse shaping [45,46] as well as for targeted excitation of particular molecular species [47]. In addition, PLs are being considered for spatial division multiplexing in telecommunications [48] as well for high efficiency free-space optical communications [49]: the latter is critical to ensuring high data rates for future astronomy and planetary science missions and may also find application in microscopy. These are just a few examples of the potential of astrophotonics to impact society more generally.…”

Free-Standing Microscale Photonic Lantern Spatial Mode Multiplexer Fabricated using 3D Nanoprinting

“…Using two orthogonally polarized reference beams (X and Y polarized) enables capturing the two interference field components simultaneously, denoted as E x and E y respectively. Using a polarization controller before the PL, we launch two orthogonal input modes to each of the PL inputs depicted as In x i and In y i where i ∈ [1,2,3,4,5,6]. We then performed modal decomposition (MD) using 12 digital modes that were simulated and supported by the 6-mode fiber (with polarization).…”

“…Spatial multiplexers find extensive applications in various fields, including high capacity MDM communication networks [1,2,3], free-space optical communication [4,5], coherent power combining [6,7], adaptive optics [8,9] and wavefront sensing [10,11]. Photonic lantern (PL) multiplexers consist of an adiabatic (see definition in the "Discussion" section) spatial transition between a multi-mode optical waveguide and a discrete set of single-mode (SM) waveguides, with matching mode and waveguide counts [12].…”