Free-Space Optical Communication Using an Optical Frequency Comb and Modulating Retroreflectors

The paper presents a high data rate optical communicationmethod with a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) by combining quantum-well modulating retroreflectors(MRRs) and an optical frequency comb.The passive optical link between a laser station and UAVsusing MRRs can reduce the mission complexity and powerconsumption at UAV sites. While increasing the laser power is astraightforward way to further decrease power consumption atUAV sites, the saturation power of the photodetector (PD) at thelaser station site can set the lower limit of power consumptionsince one PD has to receive all lights from UAVs.We used multiple comb modes as independent data transfercarriers. We designed a simple optical system consisting of aquantum-well modulator (QWM), a diffraction grating, a lens,and a planar focal plane. We experimentally realized thataround 100 modes can be used with a near-diffraction limit.Our simulation showed that using a comb can reduce powerconsumption at UAV sites compared to using a continuous-wave(CW) laser with some specific conditions. One of the applicationsof this method is a distributed interferometric antenna thatobserves the frequency range from radio frequencies to a fewtens of GHz.

本论文提出了一种结合量子阱调制回射器（Quantum-well Modulating Retroreflectors, MRRs）与光频梳的无人机集群高速光通信方案。采用MRRs实现激光站与无人机（Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs）之间的无源光链路，可降低无人机端的任务复杂度与功耗。尽管提升激光功率是进一步降低无人机端功耗的直接手段，但激光站端的光电探测器（Photodetector, PD）的饱和功率会成为功耗下限，因为单个光电探测器需接收来自所有无人机的入射光。
本研究采用多梳齿模式作为独立的数据传输载波，设计了一套包含量子阱调制器（Quantum-well Modulator, QWM）、衍射光栅、透镜与平面焦平面的简易光学系统。实验实现了近衍射极限下约100个可用梳齿模式。仿真结果表明，在特定条件下，相较于使用连续波（Continuous-wave, CW）激光器，采用光频梳可降低无人机端的功耗。
该方案的应用场景之一为可观测射频至数十吉赫兹频段的分布式干涉天线。

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集对应一篇研究论文，提出了一种基于量子阱调制后向反射器和光学频率梳的高数据速率自由空间光通信方法，用于无人机群通信。该方法通过被动光学链路降低无人机站点的功耗和复杂性，并利用多个梳模作为独立载波，实验显示约100个梳模可在近衍射极限下使用，模拟表明相比连续波激光器能有效减少功耗。