Optical Turbulence Generator for Lab-based Experimental Studies of Atmospheric Turbulence in Vertical Optical Communication Links

Abstract

A hot-air-based optical turbulence generator is
built to study atmospheric optical turbulence perturbations in
(vertical) free-space optical communication links and facilitate
the development of (digital-signal-processing-based) mitigation
techniques. The goal is to enable effortless experimentation and
testing by relating optical turbulence generator states to turbulent
characteristics. A control system with extensive automation
possibilities is developed to ensure efficient operation. The device
is characterised for an uplink scenario using a setup which allows
complete optical field measurements by means of off-axis digital
holography. The measured fields are digitally demultiplexed into a
multi-mode fibre to evaluate the potential of multi-mode diversity
reception

Date of Award	15 Feb 2022
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chigo M. Okonkwo (Supervisor 1), Sjoerd van der Heide (Supervisor 2) & Menno van den Hout (Supervisor 2)