Simulating thick atmospheric turbulence in the lab with application to orbital angular momentum communication

Brandon Rodenburg*, Mohammad Mirhosseini, Mehul Malik, Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza, Michael Yanakas, Laura Maher, Nicholas K. Steinhoff, Glenn A. Tyler, Robert W. Boyd

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

126 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number033020
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2014

Keywords

  • optical free-space communication
  • optical orbital angular momentum
  • turbulence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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