Circular polarization shift-keying modulation based on orbital angular momentum division multiplexing in free space optical communication

Abstract

Circular polarization shift-keying (CPolSK) modulation is crucial for optical communication in free space optical communication. In this paper, we propose a new optical communication system with multiple orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes for division multiplexing CPolSK modulation signals. A well-designed reference beam is employed to interfere with the CPolSK-OAM-division multiplexing (CPolSK-OAM-DM) signals for coherent detection. Then, the complex modulation signal is converted into intensity change directly detected by photo-detector. The communication performance can be further improved by subtracting the two interference beams detected. In numerical simulation, the demodulated bit error rate (BER) is 2.25 × 10−4 with the signal noise ratio (SNR) of 12-dB, and it can be reduced to 1.25 × 10−4 after difference operation. Through mapping the signals to both the initial phases and circular polarization states of the multiplexing channels, we construct the phase-CPolSK-OAM-DM system, the demodulated BER is 1.07 × 10−4 with the SNR of 15-dB. The results demonstrate that the CPolSK-OAM-DM modulation can effectively expand the communication capacity of the CPolSK system. The CPolSK-OAM-DM system has great potential in the field of high-speed broadband optical communications.