Coherent optical array receiver for PPM signals under atmospheric turbulence

The performance of a coherent free-space optical communications system operating in the presence of turbulence is investigated. Maximum Likelihood Detection techniques are employed to optimally detect Pulse Position Modulated signals with a focal-plane detector array and to reconstruct the turbulence-degraded signals.; Laboratory equipment and experimental setup used to carry out these experiments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are described. The key components include two lasers operating at 1064 nm wavelength for use with coherent detection, a 16 element (4 X 4) InGaAs focal-plane detector array, and a data-acquisition and signal-processing assembly needed to sample and collect the data and analyze the results. The detected signals are combined using the least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm. In the first part of the experimental results we show convergence of the algorithm for experimentally obtained signal tones in the presence of atmospheric turbulence. The second part of the experimental results shows adaptive combining of experimentally obtained heterodyned pulse position modulated (PPM) signals with pulse-to-pulse coherence in the presence of simulated spatial distortions resembling atmospheric turbulence. The adaptively combined PPM signals are phased up via an LMS algorithm suitably optimized to operate with PPM in the presence of additive shot noise. A convergence analysis of the algorithm is presented, and results with both computer-simulated and experimentally obtained PPM signals are analyzed.; The third part of the experimental results, in which the main goal of this thesis is achieved, includes an investigation of the performance of the Coherent Optical Receiver Experiment (CORE) at JPL. Bit Error Rate (BER) results are presented for single and multichannel optical receivers where quasi shot noise-limited performance is achieved under simulated turbulence conditions using noncoherent postdetection processing techniques. Theoretical BER expressions are compared with experimentally obtained BER results, and array combining gains are presented. BER results are shown as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), photons per symbol, and photons per bit (PPB).