title: Bit-error rate for free-space adaptive optics laser communications.
abstract: An analysis of adaptive optics compensation for atmospheric-turbulence-induced scintillation is presented with the figure of merit being the laser communications bit-error rate. The formulation covers weak, moderate, and strong turbulence; on-off keying; and amplitude-shift keying, over horizontal propagation paths or on a ground-to-space uplink or downlink. The theory shows that under some circumstances the bit-error rate can be improved by a few orders of magnitude with the addition of adaptive optics to compensate for the scintillation. Low-order compensation (less than 40 Zernike modes) appears to be feasible as well as beneficial for reducing the bit-error rate and increasing the throughput of the communication link.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 28223, USA. rtyson@uncc.edu
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Tyson