Utilizing multiplexing of structured THz beams carrying orbital-angular-momentum for high-capacity communications

Abstract

Structured electromagnetic (EM) waves have been explored in various frequency regimes to enhance the capacity of communication systems by multiplexing multiple co-propagating beams with mutually orthogonal spatial modal structures (i.e., mode-division multiplexing). Such structured EM waves include beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). An area of increased recent interest is the use of terahertz (THz) beams for free-space communications, which tends to have: (a) larger bandwidth and lower beam divergence than millimeter-waves, and (b) lower interaction with matter conditions than optical waves. Here, we explore the multiplexing of THz OAM beams for high-capacity communications. Specifically, we experimentally demonstrate communication systems with two multiplexed THz OAM beams at a carrier frequency of 0.3 THz. We achieve a 60-Gbit/s quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) and a 24-Gbit/s 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) data transmission with bit-error rates below 3.8 × 10−3. In addition, to show the compatibility of different multiplexing approaches (e.g., polarization-, frequency-, and mode-division multiplexing), we demonstrate an 80-Gbit/s QPSK THz communication link by multiplexing 8 data channels at 2 polarizations, 2 frequencies, and 2 OAM modes.