Tbps wide-field parallel optical wireless communications based on a metasurface beam splitter

Abstract

Optical wireless communication (OWC) stands out as one of the most promising technologies in the sixth-generation (6G) mobile networks. The establishment of high-quality optical links between transmitters and receivers plays a crucial role in OWC performances. Here, by a compact beam splitter composed of a metasurface and a fiber array, we proposed a wide-angle (~120°) OWC optical link scheme that can parallelly support up to 144 communication users. Utilizing high-speed optical module sources and wavelength division multiplexing technique, we demonstrated each user can achieve a communication speed of 200 Gbps which enables the entire system to support ultra-high communication capacity exceeding 28 Tbps. Furthermore, utilizing the metasurface polarization multiplexing, we implemented a full range wide-angle OWC without blind area nor crosstalk among users. Our OWC scheme simultaneously possesses the advantages of high-speed, wide communication area and multi-user parallel communications, paving the way for revolutionary high-performance OWC in the future.

In this work, the authors present a metasurface-based wide-angle beam splitter designed for future applications in optical wireless communication. By leveraging the metasurface polarization multiplexing and wavelength division multiplexing properties, they achieved a high-performance optical wireless communication system, possessing a Tbps communication rate, more than 120° coverage range, and up to 144 users parallel communication capabilities.