Analysis of the Potential of the Use of Active Optics for Free Space Optics Communication Applications

Abstract In this research we investigate the performance of the use of gradient descent algorithm in active optical system for free space optical communication tasks. The purpose of an active optical system in this task is to focus a laser beam through a diaphragm using the specified algorithm. The amount of laser beam energy passed through the diaphragm was the criteria of efficiency of focusing. The proposed algorithm is simpler in realization and might be more efficient compared to SPGD or genetic alternatives in some cases where the frequency of wavefront distortions change is not too high. The conducted research showed that the 50 mm piezoelectric mirror with 32 control channels might be able to focus 94 and 90% of initial energy through the 20 and 10 μm diaphragms.