Abstract
Optical communication is a high-capacity method that can handle considerable satellite data. When common-fiber optical devices such as optical fiber amplifiers based on single mode fibers are used in free-space laser communication systems, the laser beam has to be coupled to a single-mode fiber. Under atmospheric turbulence it would be difficult to make the required fiber coupling efficiency in satellite-to-ground laser propagation paths. A fast-steering mirror that can operate at high frequencies under atmospheric turbulence is fabricated, and its tracking performance is verified in real satellite-to-ground laser communication experiments. The measured fiber coupling loss of 10-19 dB in satellite-to-ground laser communication links under atmospheric turbulence shows good agreement with the predicted fiber coupling efficiency of 17 dB.
Highlights
High-resolution, high-precision images and a large information capacity are currently required for earth observation [1]
In ground-to-satellite optical communication links, laser beams passing through the atmosphere are affected by atmospheric turbulence; the laser beam must be coupled into the single mode fiber in order to use optical fiber amplifiers based on single mode fibers under atmospheric turbulence and can be connected to the terrestrial fiber networks
The downlink angle-of-arrival fluctuation was measured by a quadrant detector (QD), and the fast-steering mirror (FSM) was used to compensate for the angle-of-arrival fluctuation
Summary
High-resolution, high-precision images and a large information capacity are currently required for earth observation [1]. An optical satellite communication system requires high receiving sensitivity, which is needed an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and coherent communication [3,4]. Such systems can realize stable, faster optical communication between optical ground stations and satellites. A theoretical description of the fiber coupling efficiency has been developed for free-space optical communication through atmospheric turbulence for horizontal cases [7] We extend this description to fiber coupling for a slanted path. The experimental results of the fiber coupling test are shown and compared with the predicted results
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Published Version
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