Free-Space Data-Carrying Bendable Light Communications

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of bendable light beams for free-space data transmission along arbitrary paths, offering enhanced flexibility, robustness, and multifunctionality in optical communication systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel free-space bendable light communication system capable of data transmission along curved trajectories with multiple functionalities, using high-speed 32-QAM DMT signals.

Findings

Successful data transmission along arbitrary curved paths

Demonstrated bypassing obstructions and self-healing capabilities

Achieved high data rate of 39.06 Gbit/s with bendable light beams

Abstract

Bendable light beams have recently seen tremendous applications in optical manipulation, optical imaging, optical routing, micromachining, plasma generation and nonlinear optics. By exploiting curved light beams instead of traditional Gaussian beam for line-of-sight light communications, here we propose and demonstrate the viability of free-space data-carrying bendable light communications along arbitrary trajectories with multiple functionalities. By employing 39.06-Gbit/s 32-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (32-QAM) discrete multi-tone (DMT) signal, we demonstrate free-space bendable light intensity modulated direct detection (IM-DD) communication system under 3 different curved light paths. Moreover, we characterize multiple functionalities of free-space bendable light communications, including bypass obstructions transmission, self-healing transmission, self-broken trajectory transmission, and movable multi-receiver transmission. The observed results indicate that bendable light beams can make free-space optical communications more flexible, more robust and more multifunctional. The demonstrations may open a door to explore more special light beams enabling advanced free-space light communications with enhanced flexibility, robustness and functionality.