Abstract

Communicating information at the few photon level typically requires some complexity in the transmitter or receiver in order to operate in the presence of noise. This in turn incurs expense in the necessary spatial volume and power consumption of the system. In this work, we present a self-synchronised free-space optical communications system based on simple, compact and low power consumption semiconductor devices. A temporal encoding method, implemented using a gallium nitride micro-LED source and a silicon single photon avalanche photo-detector (SPAD), demonstrates data transmission at rates up to 100 kb/s for 8.25 pW received power, corresponding to 27 photons per bit. Furthermore, the signals can be decoded in the presence of both constant and modulated background noise at levels significantly exceeding the signal power. The system’s low power consumption and modest electronics requirements are demonstrated by employing it as a communications channel between two nano-satellite simulator systems.

Details

Title
Temporal Encoding to Reject Background Signals in a Low Complexity, Photon Counting Communication Link
Author
Griffiths, Alexander D 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Herrnsdorf, Johannes 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lowe, Christopher 2 ; Macdonald, Malcolm 2 ; Henderson, Robert 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Strain, Michael J 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dawson, Martin D 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1RD, UK 
 Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK 
 CMOS Sensors & Systems Group, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK 
First page
1671
Publication year
2018
Publication date
2018
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
19961944
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2607321941
Copyright
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.