title: Experimental verification of fiber-coupling efficiency for satellite-to-ground atmospheric laser downlinks.
abstract: Optical communication is a high-capacity method that can handle considerable satellite data. When common-fiber optical devices such as optical fiber amplifiers based on single mode fibers are used in free-space laser communication systems, the laser beam has to be coupled to a single-mode fiber. Under atmospheric turbulence it would be difficult to make the required fiber coupling efficiency in satellite-to-ground laser propagation paths. A fast-steering mirror that can operate at high frequencies under atmospheric turbulence is fabricated, and its tracking performance is verified in real satellite-to-ground laser communication experiments. The measured fiber coupling loss of 10-19 dB in satellite-to-ground laser communication links under atmospheric turbulence shows good agreement with the predicted fiber coupling efficiency of 17 dB.
authors: Space Communication Systems Laboratory, Wireless Network Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), 4-2-1 Nukui-Kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan. take@nict.go.jp
authors: Hideki
authors: H
authors: Takenaka
authors: Morio
authors: M
authors: Toyoshima
authors: Yoshihisa
authors: Y
authors: Takayama