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

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to simulate long-distance atmospheric turbulence in the lab for free-space optical communication using orbital angular momentum modes, and demonstrates adaptive optics mitigation techniques.

Contribution

A novel laboratory simulation technique for long atmospheric paths and its application to OAM-based communication systems.

Findings

Lab simulation accurately replicates 1 km atmospheric turbulence effects.

Adaptive optics effectively mitigates turbulence-induced distortions.

Potential for improved free-space optical communication reliability.

Abstract

We describe a procedure by which a long ($\gtrsim 1\,\mathrm{km}$) 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 (OAM) spatial modes. We also demonstrate that standard adaptive optics methods can be used to mitigate many of the effects of thick atmospheric turbulence.