Demonstration of a mid-wave infrared (10um) free space optical communication system through artificial fog

With increasing congestion and demand for more bandwidth within the radio spectrum, alternatives are required for future communication capabilities. Free space optical communications (FSOC) has the potential to achieve secure, reliable, and high-performance wireless connectivity. However, due to the perceived lack of resilience to natural weather conditions and suspended particulate matter such as fog/smog, FSOC has yet to reach mass market adoption. <br/> <br/> In this work we demonstrate a communication link using commercial-off-the-shelf components and equipment, for resilient FSOC in the presence of an artificial fog. Using the 10 μm wavelength a successful link is shown to be viable at distances of up to 290mm. Insignificant changes are observed to the communication performance with varying levels of artificial fog, where data rates of 200 kbit s⁻¹ are achieved over three modulation schemes (on-off keying, 4-level pulse position modulation, 4-level pulse amplitude modulation).