Influence of atmospheric turbulence on optical communications using orbital angular momentum for encoding
PLUTO / PLUTO-2Spatial Light Modulators
Pulse Application / -Shaping
Published on:
Authors: Mehul Malik, Malcolm O’Sullivan, Brandon Rodenburg, Mohammad Mirhosseini, Jonathan Leach, Martin P. J. Lavery, Miles J. Padgett, and Robert W. Boyd
Abstract: “We describe an experimental implementation of a free-space 11-dimensional communication system using orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. This system has a maximum measured OAM channel capacity of 2.12 bits/photon. The effects of Kolmogorov thin-phase turbulence on the OAM channel capacity are quantified. We find that increasing the turbulence leads to a degradation of the channel capacity. We are able to mitigate the effects of turbulence by increasing the spacing between detected OAM modes. This study has implications for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. We describe the sort of QKD system that could be built using our current technology.”
Open Access
Publication: Optics Express
Issue/Year: Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 12, pp. 13195-13200 (2012)