Performance Metrics and Design Parameters for a Free-space Communication Link Based on Multiplexing of Multiple Orbital-Angular-Momentum Beams

We study the design parameters for an orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexed free-space data link. Power loss, channel crosstalk and power penalty of the link are analyzed in the case of misalignment between the transmitter and receiver (lateral displacement, receiver angular error, or transmitter pointing error). The relationship among the system power loss and link distance, transmitted beam size and receiver aperture size are discussed based on the beam divergence due to free space propagation. We also describe the trade-offs for different receiver aperture sizes and mode spacing of the transmitted OAM beams under given lateral displacements or receiver angular errors. Through simulations and some experiments, we show that (1) a system with a larger transmitted beam size and a larger receiver aperture is more tolerant to the lateral displacement but less tolerant to the receiver angular error; (2) a system with a larger mode spacing, which uses larger OAM charges, suffers more system power loss but less channel crosstalk; thus, a system with a small mode spacing shows lower system power penalty when system power loss dominates (e.g., small lateral displacement or receiver angular error) while that with a larger mode spacing shows lower power penalty when channel crosstalk dominates (e.g., larger lateral displacement or receiver angular error); (3) the effects of lateral displacement and receiver angular error are not necessarily independent; as an example of them combined, the effects of the transmitter pointing error on the system are also investigated. Keywords—Free-space communications, orbital angular momentum, lateral displacement, receiver angular error, transmitter pointing error, crosstalk, power penalty