With the development of optical fiber communications, especially the maturity of the optical amplifiers and the WDM technology, space optical communication at 1550 nm becomes a promising solution for future high speed satellite communication. Receiving technology with optical amplifiers and coupling space light into single mode fiber are key technologies in space optical communication at 1550 nm. Free-space-to-fiber coupling technique investigated in this paper is the first challenge of applying fiber communication techniques to free space optical communications. We analyzed the factors that affect the efficiency of free-space-to single-mode-fiber coupling based on mode-matching theory of electromagnetic fields. On this objective, in this paper, the theoretical analysis of the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the space light-single mode fiber coupling efficiency is discussed. On this basis, the short-distance experiment coupling space light into single mode fiber is carried out. 1. The main factors affecting the process coupling space light into single mode fiber are analyzed. This paper introduced the statistical theory of atmospheric turbulence and gave out the main turbulence parameters and meteyard based on the theory of the space light-single mode fiber coupling efficiency under ideal conditions. 2. The influence of atmospheric turbulence on the space light-single mode fiber coupling efficiency is analyzed and simulated. In the weak turbulence condition, mathematical model of the mean coupling efficiency and its fluctuation variance was given. And the fluctuation variance of coupling efficiency was simulated studied under the atmospheric conditions. The influences on the average coupling efficiency was theoretically studied, which were induced by the structure constant of atmospheric refractive index, the diameter of coupling lens and the single-mode fiber mode field radius. 3. Validating the theoretical model by a experiment under a short link coupling condition. The results of this paper lay the theoretical and experimental foundation for indeed establishing the efficient space light-single mode fiber coupling systems.

Date Published: 21 August 2013
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 8906, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2013: Laser Communication Technologies and Systems, 89061L (21 August 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2034085

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8906:
International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2013: Laser Communication Technologies and Systems
Keith E. Wilson; Jing Ma; Liren Liu; Huilin Jiang; Xizheng Ke, Editor(s)