| Autor: |
M. R. Suite, H. Ray Burris, Michael Ferraro, David Klotzkin, Lee Swingen, Christopher I. Moore, James L. Murphy, G. Charmaine Gilbreath, Peter G. Goetz, William S. Rabinovich, Rita Mahon, Steven C. Binari |
| Rok vydání: |
2007 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Optical Engineering. 46:104001 |
| ISSN: |
0091-3286 |
| Popis: |
Modulating retroreflectors (MRRs) couple passive optical retroreflectors with electro-optic modulators to allow free-space optical communication with a laser and pointing-acquisition-tracking system required on only one end of the link. Recently, MRR using multiple quantum well (MQW) modulators have been demonstrated using a large-area MQW placed in front of the aperture of a corner cube. For a MQW modulator, the maximum modulation rate can range into the gigahertz, limited only by the RC time constant of the device. Most MRR systems have used corner-cube retroreflectors with apertures of about 1 cm, which require large, and hence high-capacitance, modulators. Thus data rates exceeding a few megabits per second are not possible. We describe a new kind of MQW MRR that uses a cat's-eye retroreflector with the MQW in the focal plane of the cat's-eye. This system decouples the size of the modulator from the size of the optical aperture and allows much higher data rates. A 45-Mbit/s free space link over a range of 7 km is demonstrated. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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