Abstract
Data transmission rates in optical communication systems are approaching the limits of conventional multiplexing methods. Orbital angular momentum (OAM) in optical vortex beams offers a new degree of freedom and the potential to increase the capacity of free-space optical communication systems, with OAM beams acting as information carriers for OAM division multiplexing (OAM-DM). We demonstrate independent collinear OAM channel generation, transmission and simultaneous detection using Dammann optical vortex gratings (DOVGs). We achieve 80/160 Tbit s-1capacity with uniform power distributions along all channels, with 1600 individually modulated quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK)/16-QAM data channels multiplexed by 10 OAM states, 80 wavelengths and two polarizations. DOVG-enabled OAM multiplexing technology removes the bottleneck of massive OAM state parallel detection and offers an opportunity to raise optical communication systems capacity to Pbit s-1level.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | e257 |
Journal | Light: Science and Applications |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 13 Mar 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Holographic gratings
- Multiplexing
- Optical communications
- Orbital angular momentum
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics