Photon sieve for reduction of the far-field diffraction spot size in the laser free-space communication system

Abstract

In the free-space laser communication, there is sometimes a strong need for reduction of the diffraction spot size in the far field. In this paper, instead of the usage of the larger size aperture lens and super-resolution technology in the free-space laser communication system, we introduce photon sieve to compress the center spot in the diffractive far field, which can decrease the weight of the emitting lens. We have designed the photon sieve and calculated its far-field diffractive intensity. We have also calculated the far field Airy diffractive field intensity. Simulation proves that the photon sieve diffractive spot is smaller than the Airy spot with the same transmit aperture. We have set up an experimental system to simulate the far-field diffraction free-space laser communication. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical results. Detailed experiments are presented.