Influence of atmospheric turbulence on optical communications using orbital angular momentum for encoding.
We describe an experimental implementation of a free-space 11-dimensional communication system using orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. This system has a maximum measured OAM channel capacity of 2.12 bits/photon. The effects of Kolmogorov thin-phase turbulence on the OAM channel capacity are quantified. We find that increasing the turbulence leads to a degradation of the channel capacity. We are able to mitigate the effects of turbulence by increasing the spacing between detected OAM modes. This study has implications for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. We describe the sort of QKD system that could be built using our current technology.
The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA. memalik@optics.rochester.edu
Mehul
M
Malik
Malcolm
M
O'Sullivan
Brandon
B
Rodenburg
Mohammad
M
Mirhosseini
Jonathan
J
Leach
Martin P J
MP
Lavery
Miles J
MJ
Padgett
Robert W
RW
Boyd