Adaptive optical antennas: design and evaluation

Thomas Weyrauch; Mikhail A. Vorontsov; Gary W. Carhart; Galina V. Simonova; Leonid A. Beresnev; Ernst E. Polnau

doi:10.1117/12.739011

25 September 2007 Adaptive optical antennas: design and evaluation

Thomas Weyrauch, Mikhail A. Vorontsov, Gary W. Carhart, Galina V. Simonova, Leonid A. Beresnev, Ernst E. Polnau

Proceedings Volume 6708, Atmospheric Optics: Models, Measurements, and Target-in-the-Loop Propagation; 67080R (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.739011
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present the design and evaluation of compact adaptive optical antennas with apertures diameters of 16 mm and 100 mm for 5Gbit/s-class free-space optical communication systems. The antennas provide a bi-directional optically transparent link between fiber-optical wavelength-division multiplex systems and allow for mitigation of atmospheric-turbulence induced wavefront phase distortions with adaptive optics components. Beam steering is implemented in the antennas either with mirrors on novel tip/tilt platforms or a fiber-tip positioning system, both enabling operation bandwidths of more than 1 kHz. Bimorph piezoelectric actuated deformable mirrors are used for low-order phase-distortion compensation. An imaging system is integrated in the antennas for coarse pointing and tracking. Beam steering and wavefront control is based on blind maximization of the received signal level using a stochastic parallel gradient descent algorithm. The adaptive optics control architecture allowed the use of feedback signals provided locally within each transceiver system and remotely by the opposite transceiver system via an RF link. First atmospheric compensation results from communication experiments over a 250 m near-ground propagation path are presented.

Citation Download Citation

Thomas Weyrauch, Mikhail A. Vorontsov, Gary W. Carhart, Galina V. Simonova, Leonid A. Beresnev, and Ernst E. Polnau "Adaptive optical antennas: design and evaluation", Proc. SPIE 6708, Atmospheric Optics: Models, Measurements, and Target-in-the-Loop Propagation, 67080R (25 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.739011

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