Abstract
This article introduces what we believe to be a novel receiver design featuring a compact, wide-field-of-view receiver and bidirectional gain medium that enables multiple receivers to charge simultaneously. The receiver was tested with a transmitter comprising a bidirectional broadband semiconductor optical amplifier and two wavelength division multiplexing filters. The receiver incorporates a ball-lens retroreflector equipped with anti-reflection and highly reflective coatings on its front and rear surfaces, respectively. The system has an overall efficiency of 1.23%, which can be improved further using suitable gain media. This receiver scheme has potential for seamless integration with various transmission systems that utilize the RBC technique and offers a wide field of view of approximately ±60 degrees.