Open AccessReal-time adaptive optics testbed to investigate point-ahead angle in pre-compensation of Earth-to-GEO optical communication
Author(s) -
Nina Leonhard,
R. Berlich,
Stefano Minardi,
Alexander Barth,
Steffen Mauch,
Jacopo Mocci,
Matthias Goy,
Michael Appelfelder,
Erik Beckert,
Claudia Reinlein
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.24.013157
Subject(s) - strehl ratio , optics , geostationary orbit , free space optical communication , breadboard , adaptive optics , telecommunications link , compensation (psychology) , optical communication , fading , physics , communications satellite , computer science , satellite , electronic engineering , telecommunications , engineering , psychology , decoding methods , astronomy , psychoanalysis
We explore adaptive optics (AO) pre-compensation for optical communication between Earth and geostationary (GEO) satellites in a laboratory experiment. Thus, we built a rapid control prototyping breadboard with an adjustable point-ahead angle where downlink and uplink can operate both at 1064 nm and 1550 nm wavelength. With our real-time system, beam wander resulting from artificial turbulence was reduced such that the beam hits the satellite at least 66% of the time as compared to merely 3% without correction. A seven-fold increase of the average Strehl ratio to (28 ± 15)% at 18 μrad point-ahead angle leads to a considerable reduction of the calculated fading probability. These results make AO pre-compensation a viable technique to enhance Earth-to-GEO optical communication.