Les télécommunications laser en espace libre sont limitées en portée par la turbulence atmosphérique. L'optique adaptative, par la correction de la phase turbulente à l'émission du faisceau, a permis d'étendre leur domaine d'exploitation.Toutefois, sur de longues distances de propagation, cette correction n'est plus suffisante et il faut également précompenser l'amplitude du faisceau émis. De premières études numériques ont montré que le principe de retournement temporel, ou plus exactement de conjugaison de phase bidirectionnelle itérative, conduirait à des conditions satisfaisantes de focalisation du faisceau laser en fort régime de turbulence.Le principe de conjugaison de phase n'ayant été étudié que théoriquement jusque-là, mon travail de thèse s'est attaché à mettre en oeuvre un démonstrateur expérimental pour quantifier les performances de cette technique dans des conditions maîtrisées. En parallèle, une simulation de bout en bout de l'expérience a permis d'évaluer l'influence d'erreurs d'étalonnage sur les performances finales de la correction et de valider les résultats expérimentaux obtenus. Les points durs de la mise en oeuvre d'un système de télécommunications laser en espace libre ont ainsi été identifiés.L'ensemble de ces travaux constitue la toute première démonstration expérimentale du principe de retournement temporel optique. D'autres domaines d'application comme les lasers de puissance ou la propagation à travers des milieux biologiques très diffusants, nécessitant également de corriger le faisceau à l'émission, sont concernés. / Free Space Optical communications (FSO) are range limited due to atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive optics can mitigate turbulence effects by adding a phase modulation on the emitted laser beam. However, both phase and amplitude modulation are needed to perform long range FSO. Previous numerical studies have shown that iterative phase conjugation is an efficient modulation technique for lasercom systems.This PhD thesis is dedicated to the development and the realization of the first experimental demonstration of the iterative phase conjugation principle in a controlled turbulence environment. An optical bench, representative of a long range propagation through strong turbulence, has been scaled down to few-meters propagation in visible.Several methods for complex field measurement and modulation are numerically studied. Selected methods are implemented and tested, such as a novel focal plane technique for complex field measurement. Finally, iterative phase conjugation is performed and results cross-correlated with an end-to-end model representative of the optical bench.This work is the first experimental demonstration of the optical phase conjugation principle. Applications can be found in other fields than lasercoms, such as high power lasers or propagation through highly diffusing biological tissues, both in need of laser emission modulation.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis sought to design and implement a low-cost, portable, Free-Space Optics (FSO) communications device for Ethernet applications. Under some circumstances such a device would have utility at a Combat Operations Center (COC), a Field Artillery Position, or wherever else fiber optic cable is used in garrison or field. The design was based on commercial off the shelf components originally designed for fiber optic applications. Based on a 155 megabits per second (Mbps) media converter, the design used two fiber optic transceivers, coupled to collimating lenses to pass data over free-space. Sustained data rate of 100 Mbps was achieved with full network functionality on the optical bench with a low-power (0.5mW) laser diode transmitter without focusing optics on the receiver. The laser diode power(mounted on device), was measured with acceptable losses up to 300 ft during testing using a photodiode with focusing optics. The findings indicate that the system with proper collecting optics could be optimized for free-space communication at short to moderate ranges. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

The main aim of this thesis is the design of an optical wireless link that is transmitted in free space, in the atmosphere. The thesis describes the composition of heads of the atmospheric optical link. One part of this work focuses on the issue of the spread of optical beam in the atmosphere. The facts which have a major impact on the transmission of optical radiation in free space are pointed out here as well. In this work phenomena of absorption, refraction of light, turbulence and dispersion are discussed. Wavelengths spread in the atmosphere with different decline and therefore this thesis provides an analysis of the use of wavelengths between 750 and 1600 nm depending on the meteorological visibility. It describes the basis of the design of AOS through stationary model using power balance equation. It depicts the description of the statistical model, which makes possible to determine the availability on the basis of probability. Current possibilities of AOS are in general described in this work. The practical part of the work is focused on the design of simulation model of transmitter and receiver AOS in the program Pspice. The receiver and transmitter are designed to replace transiver in the media converter. The receiver plays a key role, and therefore big part of the thesis is given to it. Receiver model is composed of a photodiode and of an transimpedance amplifier. The receiver circuit has been tested. The model of transmitter shows the principle of modulating of current, which flows in laser diode. This work does not carried the model of atmosphere, which would serve as a link between the receiver and the transmitter. The circuit of the receiver is subjected to the noise analysis. Parameter NEP and SNR is designed. Link budget is calculated for models of the receivers and the transmitters. The maximum distance of heads is set based on the requirements for a BER error rate which combine this condition. The design of the practical implementation results from the models of transmitters and receivers. Printed circuit boards are designed in EAGLE. Within the frame of this thesis no curcuit diagram is carried out.

The diploma thesis deals with description and design of a low-cost free-space optical (FSO) link. First, general FSO theory is discussed including their common parameters, properties and topologies. Further, optical signal sources and detectors are proposed. Finally, the selected implementation is described including its design and realization. The proposed FSO consists of two identical segments (modules) to form a full-duplex link. The FSO utilizes LED as a light source, maximum speed data rate is 100 Mb/s with 100Base-TX interface.

[pt] A óptica de espaço livre (FSO), inicialmente estudada na década de 60, está atraindo atenção no contexto dos sistemas 5G+, que exige tecnologias de back-hauling sem fio com taxas de dados extremamente altas em distâncias de poucos quilômetros. A atual falta de um modelo global de perda de percurso para FSO motiva o estudo do comportamento do enlace óptico sob diferentes condições atmosféricas. Esta tese trata do desenvolvimento de modelos para prever a atenuação devido a neblina e chuva para projetar enlaces FSO em tecnologias 5G e além. Estudamos os bancos de dados de medições de superfície disponíveis em todo o mundo como referência para analisar as respostas do FSO considerando os dados disponíveis de longo prazo e descobrimos que o maior impacto na visibilidade em todo o mundo é causado por neblina, neve e chuva. Assim, selecionamos neblina e chuva como o foco deste estudo. Vários modelos de perda de percurso, baseados na visibilidade, são avaliados através de uma abordagem analítica. Propomos modelos de limite inferior e superior para estimar a atenuação específica devido ao nevoeiro considerando incertezas quanto à sensibilidade da atenuação específica, gama, em função da visibilidade em 1.550 micrômetros e o melhor ajuste aos resultados do modelo microfísico. Com relação à atenuação causada pela chuva, estudamos modelos disponíveis na literatura para enlaces de micro-ondas e os modificamos para aplicação em enlaces FSO. Quando os efeitos de espalhamento múltiplo são considerados, foi encontrada uma redução significativa na atenuação da chuva. Construímos a partir dos modelos, um método para combinar estatisticamente a atenuação em enlaces FSO causada por diferentes condições climáticas. O desempenho dos enlaces ópticos é avaliado em termos do máximo comprimento do enlace em relação à disponibilidade sob quatro condições climáticas: (i) somente chuva, (ii) somente neblina, (iii) chuva e neblina, e (iv) e todas as condições. Finalmente, eventos experimentais para os enlaces FSO e mmWave implementados no campus Leonardo do Politecnico di Milano são classificados e analisados dependendo do efeito atmosférico estudado: chuva estratiforme, chuva convectiva, chuva leve, vento, neblina pesada, neve e outros. / [en] Free-space optics (FSO), initially studied in the 60s, is attracting attention in the frame of 5G+ systems, which demands wireless back-hauling technologies with extremely high data rates over distances up to a few kilometers. The current lack of a global path loss model for FSO motivates studying the optical link s behavior under different atmospheric conditions. This thesis deals with the development of models for predicting the attenuation due to fog and rain for designing FSO links in 5G and beyond technologies. We study extensive surface measurement databases worldwide as a benchmark for analyzing FSO responses considering available long-term data. We find that the highest impact on visibility worldwide is caused by fog, snow, and rain. Thus, we select fog and rain as the focus of this study. Several path loss models based on visibility are assessed. We propose lower and upper-bound models to estimate the specific attenuation, gamma, due to fog which considers uncertainties as the sensitivity of gamma to the visibility at 1.550 µm and a micro-physical model of fog. Regarding attenuation caused by rain, we study models available in the literature for microwave links and modify them for application to FSO. When the multiple scattering effects are considered, a significant reduction in the rain attenuation has been found. From the findings, we build a method to statistically combine the attenuation effects on FSO caused by different weather conditions. The performance of FSO links is assessed in terms of the maximum link range against availability under four weather conditions: (i) rain only, (ii) fog only, (iii) rain and fog, and (iv) all conditions. Finally, experimental events for FSO and mmWave links implemented at Leonardo Campus of Politecnico di Milano are classified and analyzed depending on the studied atmospheric effects: stratiform rain, convective rain, light rain, wind, heavy fog, snow, and others.

An accurate PDF of irradiance for a FSO channel is important when designing a laser radar, active laser imaging, or a communications system to operate over the channel. Parameters such as detector threshold level, probability of detection, mean fade time, number of fades, BER, and SNR are derived from the PDF and determine the design constraints of the receiver, transmitter, and corresponding electronics. Current PDF models of irradiance, such as the Gamma-Gamma, do not fully capture the effect of aperture averaging; a reduction in scintillation as the diameter of the collecting optic is increased. The Gamma-Gamma PDF of irradiance is an attractive solution because the parameters of the distribution are derived strictly from atmospheric turbulence parameters; propagation path length, Cn2, l0, and L0. This dissertation describes a heuristic physics-based modeling technique to develop a new PDF of irradiance based upon the optical field. The goal of the new PDF is three-fold: capture the physics of the turbulent atmosphere, better describe aperture averaging effects, and relate parameters of the new model to measurable atmospheric parameters. The modeling decomposes the propagating electromagnetic field into a sum of independent random-amplitude spatial plane waves using an approximation to the Karhunen-Loeve expansion. The scattering effects of the turbulence along the propagation path define the random-amplitude of each component of the expansion. The resulting PDF of irradiance is a double finite sum containing a Bessel function. The newly developed PDF is a generalization of the Gamma-Gamma PDF, and reduces to such in the limit. An experiment was setup and performed to measure the PDF of irradiance for several receiver aperture sizes under moderate to strong turbulence conditions. The propagation path was instrumented with scintillometers and anemometers to characterize the turbulence conditions. The newly developed PDF model and the GG model were compared to histograms of the experimental data. The new PDF model was typically able to match the data as well or better than the GG model under conditions of moderate aperture averaging. The GG model fit the data better than the new PDF under conditions of significant aperture averaging. Due to a limiting scintillation index value of 3, the new PDF was not compared to the GG for point apertures under strong turbulence; a regime where the GG is known to fit data well.

The aim of this project was to produce an integrate-able free space optical transceiver for Specks. Specks are tiny computing units that together can form a powerful network called a SpeckNet. The SpeckNet platform is developed by the SpeckNet consortium, which consists of five Scottish Universities and combines computer science, electrical engineering and digital signal processing groups. The principal goal of creating an optical transceiver was achieved by integrating in-house fabricated VCSELs (with lasing thresholds below 400 uA) and custom designed detectors on the SpeckNet platform. The transceiver has a very low power consumption (approximately 100 uW), which removes the need for synchronous communication through the SpeckNet thus making the network more efficient. I describe both static and dynamic beam control techniques. For static control, I used micro-lenses. I fabricated the lenses by greyscale electron beam lithography and integrated them directly on VCSEL arrays. I achieved a steering angle of 10 degrees with this design. I also looked at integrated gratings etched straight into a VCSEL and observed beam steering with an efficiency of 60% For dynamic control, I implemented a liquid crystal (LC) design. I built a LC cell with 30 individually controlled pixels, but I only achieved a steering angle of 1 degree. Furthermore, I investigated two different techniques for achieving beam steering by interference, using coupled VCSELs (a phased array approach). Firstly, using photonic crystals etched into the surface of the VCSEL, I built coupled laser cavities. Secondly, I designed and built bow-tie type VCSELs that were optically coupled but electrically isolated. These designs work by differential current injection causing an interference effect in the VCSELs far field. This technique is the first stepping stone towards realising a phased optical array. Finally, I considered signal detection. Using the same VCSEL material, I built a resonant-cavity detector. This detector had a better background rejection ratio than commercially available silicon devices.

This Master’s thesis analizes technologies suitable for metropolitan area networks. In this thesis there are mentioned technologies used for wireless transfer with speeds above 1 Gbps. There are described basic features and parameters of microwave radio relay links in 70/80GHz range and free space optic links. These technologies are compared with classic optical networks. Practical part of thesis was focused on development of application which calculates signal attenuation caused by the passage of the atmosphere for both technologies. Results gained from this application are mentioned in this Master’s thesis.

[pt] Dois dispositivos de contagem de fótons únicos, sensíveis a comprimentos de onda no infravermelho próximo e médio, são propostos e experimentalmente investigados. Ambos utilizam uma técnica de dois estágios, composta de uma etapa inicial de conversão de freqüências em um cristal não-linear seguida de detecção por um fotodiodo avalanche de silício. Enquanto o primeiro projeto é voltado à detecção de fótons únicos a 1.55 μm para comunicações quânticas via fibra óptica, usando um processo intra-cavidade, o segundo projeto prevê o desenvolvimento de um contador de fótons operando a 4.65 μm para sistemas de espaço livre. Neste caso, um estudo de viabilidade para um sistema prático de criptografia quântica operando em um comprimento de onda no infravermelho médio é realizado. Os resultados mostram que, usando a tecnologia disponível na atualidade, tal sistema pode ser construído, embora sua utilidade se mostre restrita a enlaces possuindo certas condições meteorológicas específicas. / [en] Two single photon counting devices, operating at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths, are introduced and experimentally investigated. Both use a twostage technique, comprised of an initial frequency up-conversion procedure inside a nonlinear crystal followed by a silicon avalanche photodiode. Whereas the first project consists on detection of single photons at 1.55 ìm for fiber-optic-based quantum communications, using a cavity-enhanced procedure, the second project envisions the development of a single-photon counter operating at 4.65 ìm for free-space systems. In this case, a feasibility study for a practical quantum key distribution system operating in a mid-infrared wavelength is performed. The results show that, using present-day technology, such a system can be constructed, albeit its usefulness would be restricted to operation under very specific weather conditions.

The aim of this thesis is to study a free space optics and its application in communication technologies. It describes possible interrupting impacts on the beamed optical signal, which are signal noise, attenuation of the atmosphere and atmospheric turbulence. The basis of the thesis is to describe the impact of the atmospheric turbulences on the optical beam. Fluctuation of optical intensity in the optical beam has been measured and index of refraction structure parameter calculated. With its assistance, turbulence rate has been determined.