Atmospheric turbulence compensation in orbital angular momentum communications: Advances and perspectives

Shuhui Li, Shi Chen, Chunqing Gao, Alan E. Willner, Jian Wang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM)-carrying beams have recently generated considerable interest due to their potential use in communication systems to increase transmission capacity and spectral efficiency. For OAM-based free-space optical (FSO) links, a critical challenge is the atmospheric turbulence that will distort the helical wavefronts of OAM beams leading to the decrease of received power, introducing crosstalk between multiple channels, and impairing link performance. In this paper, we review recent advances in turbulence effects compensation techniques for OAM-based FSO communication links. First, basic concepts of atmospheric turbulence and theoretical model are introduced. Second, atmospheric turbulence effects on OAM beams are theoretically and experimentally investigated and discussed. Then, several typical turbulence compensation approaches, including both adaptive optics-based (optical domain) and signal processing-based (electrical domain) techniques, are presented. Finally, key challenges and perspectives of compensation of turbulence-distorted OAM links are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)68-81
Number of pages14
JournalOptics Communications
Volume408
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2018

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