Orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) multiplexing technology offers a significant dimension to enlarge communication capacity in free-space optical links. The coherent beam combining (CBC) system can simultaneously realize OAM multiplexing and achieve high-power laser output, providing substantial advantages for long-distance communication. Herein, we present an integrated CBC system for free-space optical links based on OAM multiplexing and demultiplexing technologies for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. A method to achieve flexible OAM multiplexing and efficient demultiplexing based on the CBC system is proposed and demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results exhibit a low bit error rate of 0.47% and a high recognition precision of 98.58% throughout the entire data transmission process. By employing such an ingenious strategy, this work holds promising prospects for enriching ultra-long-distance structured light communication in the future.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM), described by an azimuthal phase term exp ( jlθ ) , has unbound orthogonal states with different topological charges l. Therefore, with the explosive growth of global communication capacity, especially for short-distance optical interconnects, light-carrying OAM has proved its great potential to improve transmission capacity and spectral efficiency in the space-division multiplexing system due to its orthogonality, security, and compatibility with other techniques. Meanwhile, 100-m free-space optical interconnects become an alternative solution for the “last mile” problem and provide interbuilding communication. We experimentally demonstrate a 260-m secure optical interconnect using OAM multiplexing and 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) signals. We study the beam wandering, power fluctuation, channel cross talk, bit-error-rate performance, and link security. Additionally, we also investigate the link performance for 1-to-9 multicasting at the range of 260 m. Considering that the power distribution may be affected by atmospheric turbulence, we introduce an offline feedback process to make it flexibly controllable.

针对FSO(free space optica)链路和RF(ratio frequency)链路之间通信速率不匹配以及由地面多用户移动所带来的通信服务状态变化问题，提出了无人机自由空间光通信/射频（FSO/RF）混合中继链路传输速率优化方法。以用户公平性、最低服务质量以及无人机总功率为约束，建立了无人机中继协作的FSO/RF混合通信下行链路模型，提出了一种基于无人机动态轨迹和发射功率联合优化算法。利用连续凸逼近及拉格朗日对偶函数法，将原非凸模型转化为凸优化问题进行求解。对不同能见度下链路传输速率进行分析，结果表明，能见度为1.7 km时，FSO链路和RF链路均达到全速传输。所提算法相较固定式中继平均通信速率有了447.5%的提升，相较非功率优化算法链路平均通信速率提升32.5%。