title: Capacity of polarization and amplitude modulated links in the presence of atomospheric scintillation.
abstract: A transmission channel may be characterized by its capacity, i.e., the largest quantity of mean mutual information transmitted between the emitter and the receiver. The channel we have studied is a light beam traveling in the low atmosphere, and the capacity has been calculated for polarization (PCM/PL) and intensity (IM) modulation, assuming a Poisson detection process and log-normal fluctuations for scintillation. The depolarization of light has been neglected, and the polarizers have been considered perfect. The appended graphs show that PCM/PL modulation has a greater capacity in all investigated cases.
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Lamouroux
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Prade