26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Pre-Compensation Adaptive Optics with Photonic Lanterns

Not scheduled

20m

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Contributed Oral ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Speaker

Teodor Malendevych (University of Sydney)

Description

Ground-to-space optical communication can be advantageous to radio due to higher data rates and better security. It is, however, much more susceptible to atmospheric turbulence resulting in signal loss. Downlinks can be corrected with existing adaptive optics (AO) technology while on the uplink weight and power concerns make AO unappealing for satellite terminals. Atmospheric pre-compensation is a promising solution. We present a novel method of utilizing the beam forming capabilities of photonic lanterns for pre-compensation adaptive optics in C-band. Benchtop laboratory experimentation is performed with 3-port and 7-port lanterns. Various beam shapes are created, including applicable Linearly Polarized (LP) modes. Photonic lantern pre-compensation is then tested using SLM-enabled simulated atmospheres. Novel simulations confirm the scalability of this technique to higher port numbers.