Harvesting Planck radiation for free-space optical communications in the long-wave infrared band

Journal Article · 01 January 2022 · Optics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.476394· OSTI ID:2417672

Weinstein, Haley A. ^[1]; Cai, Zhi; Cronin, Stephen B.; Habif, Jonathan L.

---

1. OSTI

We demonstrate a free-space optical communication link with an optical transmitter that harvests naturally occurring Planck radiation from a warm body and modulates the emitted intensity. The transmitter exploits an electro-thermo-optic effect in a multilayer graphene device that electrically controls the surface emissivity of the device resulting in control of the intensity of the emitted Planck radiation. We design an amplitude-modulated optical communication scheme and provide a link budget for communications data rate and range based on our experimental electro-optic characterization of the transmitter. Finally, we present an experimental demonstration achieving error-free communications at 100 bits per second over laboratory scales.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-07ER46376
• OSTI ID: 2417672
• Journal Information: Optics Letters, Journal Name: Optics Letters Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 47; ISSN 0146-9592; ISSN OPLEDP
• Publisher: Optical Society of America (OSA)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Optics