Structured light signal transmission through clouds

Abstract

Dynamic media such as atmospheric clouds and fog form a formidable barrier to light propagation for free-space optical communication (FSO). To overcome such an obstacle, we propose to make use of the acoustic properties of a laser filament coupled together with a donut-shaped signal beam. A filament generated by an ultrafast laser is accompanied by an acoustic wave that clears a cylindrical chamber around the filament’s plasma column that can mimic a transmission channel. We present a method to couple a Laguerre–Gauss beam through the obstacle-free channel. We image and measure the transmitted signal carried by the structured beam to demonstrate an efficient method for FSO through cloudy conditions, which requires low energy, is resilient to noise, and is unaffected by the filament.